The Twins of Two Lands
by Lavender of the Shire
Summary: Twins, a boy and a girl are brought to Middle Earth, but there's a problem. They don't speak the Common Tongue and no one in Middle Earth speaks English. They need to learn the language and survive. There is more too it than that.
1. Where Are We?

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The Twins of Two Lands

Kieran and Penelope walked though the woods outside their grandparents' home in Northern Ontario. It was summer, and hot so they both wore jeans and t-shirts. Kieran's was blue like his eyes and Penny's were green like the forest. Both had black hair, Kieran's cut short, Penny's long and tied back. They said nothing as they walked. They didn't need to. They'd had their own language of gestures since they were toddlers, now liberally seasoned with American Sign Language, which allowed them to them to point out things of interest without disturbing the peace.

They had been walking for a long time when they realized that the forest had changed some how. They could no longer hear the distant hum of traffic. The paths were no longer in sight no matter how hard they looked. Penelope pushed down panic as she and her brother exchanges a worried glance. They could survive in the woods, for a while at least. Mum and Dad had made sure of that, though they lived in the city. They each had a knife and a small first aid kit. The first thing they did was sit on a fallen log. Wandering aimlessly would accomplish nothing. Sitting still there was a chance of being found. When night came they made a fire and ate an apple each. They were running out of water. They took turns sleeping while the other watched the fire.

In the morning while they were deciding what to do they heard hoof beats. Both teens jumped up and ran towards the sound yelling, "Stop! Help us! We're lost!"

The great white horses stopped as they approached. They riders, tall men with long, braided, dark hair, dismounted. They were dressed alike in tunics and pants that blended with the forest, and wore quivers of arrows on their backs. Swords and knives hung from their belts looking dangerous even in their sheaths.

"They better be friendly," Kieran muttered under his breath and Penelope nodded her agreement.

"Look at their ears," she whispered. They were pointed.

The man on the left spoke, but neither teen could understand his words.

"I'm sorry. We don't understand," Kieran said. "Can you speak English or French?

"Or German?" Penny added. "Parlez vous francais? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

The men looked at each other in confusion and this time the one on the right spoke.

Kieran and Penny shook their heads. Penny pointed to herself. "Penelope."

Kieran imitated her. "Kieran."

The men pointed to themselves saying, "Elladan," and, "Elrohir."

"Elladan, Elrohir," Penny repeated, pointing to each in turn. She then pointed to herself and her brother again. "Penelope, Kieran." She waited for the men to nod in understanding. Then she walked in place, stopped, and looked around, shrugging her shoulders. "We're lost." She rubbed her stomach and mimed eating and drinking. "We're hungry and thirsty."

Elladan took a water skin and tossed it to them. Kieran caught it and sniffed the contents before drinking. He took a few swallows and handed it to Penny. "It's okay. It's water."

She drank and gave it back to Elladan. "Thank you."

The men, well Penny was beginning to think they were elves, indicated the horses and beckoned.

"They want us to get on the horses," Kieran said.

"I can see that. I'm also five feet tall and those are big horses. I don't think I can reach the stirrups."

"I can."

"Yeah. You're half a foot taller than me."

"You'll grow."

"Just get on the horse. Show them we understand."

Kieran managed with a little help from Elrohir. Penelope contemplated the horses for a moment before Elladan put her on his mount and climbed up behind her. Elrohir mounted behind Kieran and they started out.

They rode all day with a brief pause at noon. When they reached a valley of trees and beautiful buildings Elladan said, "Imladris."

"Imladris," Penny repeated.

Elladan and Elrohir took them to another man in a huge, wonderful house. He seemed important. He wore a robe, had dark hair, and grey eyes. An air of authority surrounded him.

Elladan pointed. "Elrond." He then said something from which Penny could pick her and Kieran's names and a conversation ensued.

"I hate this," Kieran muttered.

"Me too," Penny said. "Now I know how Mum's students feel."

"Trust you to think like an ESL teacher."

"I'm not exactly, but we should. I've watched Mum teach kids to speak English when she doesn't know their language. We're kind of in the same boat, only we're learning."

"Maybe they'll just send us home."

"I doubt it. I think we're in Middle Earth. The names fit and they look like elves."

"So, how do we learn the language?"

"Well, Mum says that all language has certain things in common. It has a structure, the same types of words, the same basic sounds. We can learn words, then the structure, the grammar we can kind of pick up by listening. That's how babies learn."

"Yeah, but we're not babies. We're almost fifteen. I'm just happy I passed French."

"You're not that bad, and I'm good at languages. It'll take time. That's all."

"We don't have time. Gramma and Grampa are probably already in a panic, school starts in a month and Mum and Dad--" He broke off abruptly and Penny winced. "Mum doesn't have time to worry about us. She has four other kids to worry about."

Penelope looked down. "I know. But we are here and we are stuck. We don't know how we got here, or even when we got here. How long do you think we were here before we noticed the forest had changed?"

"I don't know, but we got here, didn't we? That means there must be a way home. We just have to find it, or let them find it."

"Not everything has a mathematical answer, Kieran."

They waited the rest of the time in silence. When Elrond and his sons were done talking, a female elf showed the kids to their rooms and brought food--bread, fruit, and honey--for them to eat. There were baths and changes of clothes. Penny tested the water in her bathroom and found it warm, so she bathed, but didn't relax. She hoped Kieran had the good sense to do the same. He was smart enough, but stubborn. To Penny's dismay all the clothes left were dresses. Not that there was anything wrong with dresses, but she preferred jeans and t-shirts for everyday life. Maybe the simple, dark green one. It seemed functional, for a dress anyway.

When she was ready, Penny went to Kieran's room. He'd eaten, bathed and changed into a beige tunic and brown pants. He was lucky. He didn't have a wet braid dripping down his back.

"I guess we just stay here," Kieran said as Penelope sat on his bed.

"I guess. I'd just get lost wandering around."

"I wouldn't. How much do you remember about the books? I'm not about to trust the movie."

"Most of it. Not the language, though. They didn't have much beyond pronunciation and a few phrases or pictures of runes. Alphabets, I guess. I don't remember them. Maps I know a bit, and people, time lines."

"I should have read them."

"It wouldn't make much difference. Do you think they'll be okay? Mum and the others?"

"They're strong. They'll be fine."

"I know, but we lost Dad so recently. They shouldn't have to deal with it again."

"I know."

They waited. They did a lot of waiting in Rivendell. Waiting for the elves to take them to meals and back to their rooms. Waiting to be led to Elrond or another teacher who tried to make them understand, but couldn't. It was like being an infant again, able to communicate only the most basic needs and wants. Food. Water. Those were the first words they learned. Beyond that it was hard. Kieran could draw pictures to help, and gestures became Penelope's new best friend.

Walking in the garden about a week later, Elrond pointed out various plants and named them. It was hard to tell if he was naming specific types of plants or using more general terms.

Penelope walked up to an oak. "Tree." She then went to an ash, a willow, a maple and a birch. "Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree." Then she touched them again. "Oak, ash, willow, maple, birch." The third time she reverted back to tree. 

Elrond smiled. He went to each tree saying a Sindarin word. Penny and Kieran repeated it. Then he called each tree by its proper name, letting the children repeat them, and ended by referring to each tree as a tree again. They worked in a similar way with flowers and other types of plants. Nouns were easy to learn. Penny could learn over twenty a day easily and with help Kieran could too. Verbs weren't too bad, though the fact that the English language had so many synonyms--like run, dash, jog-- made some of them more difficult. It was impossible to know if Sindarin functioned in a similar way. As long as it would be acted out clearly, though, it wasn't too bad. The other parts of speech weren't so easy. When looking at a brown block of wood, for example, a word could mean brown, hard, smooth, square, or cube. Like learning the word for tree, several different objects with one similar trait were needed.

"Brown tunic, brown block, brown table, brown book." Sometimes adding the noun to the adjectives helped. Adverbs were a lost cause at this point. How did one explain the concept of quickly to someone with no language? They needed more verbs. Prepositions, well, it depended on the preposition. Simple ones were okay.

"I want to be able to ask questions," Kieran said. "I want to be able to ask what's for supper, but I can't say what. I can't say is."

"I know," Penny said. She was pacing Kieran's room while he sat on the bed.

"Why haven't they taught us how to say 'is?'"

"Ich bin."

"What?"

Ich bin, du bist, er/sie/es ist, wir sind, ihr seit, sie sind, Sie sein."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Those are the conjugations of the German word sein, which means 'to be.' 'Is' is a conjugation of the verb 'to be.' There's no way to act it out and I haven't picked up on it yet. 'To be' also tends to be irregular, so I need to pick out conjugations that won't fit the format and probably won't sound alike. I am, you are, he/she/it is etc. It's hard, and they have three forms of 'you,' which doesn't help, though most languages seem to."

"You're supposed to be good with languages."

"I am good with languages! I'm just not so good at picking words out of thin air. I think this is how to say is, though." She repeated a word she heard often enough to guess at its meaning from context.

Kieran went to his desk and took out a pencil and a fresh sheet of paper. "Leave me alone. I'm drawing."

"You should be practicing your alphabet."

"I've memorized it."

Penelope sighed and left. That would be the one area of languages where Kieran's visual memory became more useful than her audio memory; memorizing and copying the runes used by the elves. She was the one who should be practicing. She went to her room and got a pen, book, inkbottle and pad of paper. After nearly two months she felt confident enough to wander the halls of Imladris alone. She wanted a quiet place to practice her writing. A quiet place that was not the room where she now spent most of her life. She passed a few elves. Most no longer took notice of her or Kieran except to give them occasional looks of pity. She hated those looks. Inside there was no way to avoid them so she went out onto one of the many balconies and sat on the bench. She set the book beside her, open to the first page where the alphabet was clearly displayed, and the inkbottle beside it. The paper she kept in her lap and hunched over, concentrating on copying the runes.

She remembered learning how to write in grade one. Gripping the pencil, trying to hold it as the teacher told her. It hadn't worked. Her letters had always been hard to form, big and uneven, edges never straight or smooth. Eventually she had modified her grip so that the pen or pencil was held near the top against her ring finger with the middle finger at the side, the index finger on top and the utensil resting in the crook of her thumb and forefinger. This grip allowed fingers and wrist to push the pen over the page to form the thin lines that formed the English language could appear small and neat on the page. It didn't work for Sindarin. Maybe it was the pen, but it didn't work for Sindarin. It didn't help that dipping and holding the feather pen so that ink didn't run all over the place was an art in itself.

"Penelope."

Penny looked up from her cramped, uneven runes to see Elrond in the doorway.

He beckoned. "Come." It was a word she was familiar with. She nodded as she gathered her materials. He led her to the dining hall that doubled as a classroom. "Sit."

He studied her runes and smiled. "Good." He took her pad and made a number of evenly spaced lines. Then Elrond copied out the runes on the first line, saying their names and sounds as he did. When he'd finished he put the pen back in her hand, adjusting her grip to one considered proper and helped her dip the pen. She had to admit that this grip facilitated the dipping slightly better. Once she started writing though, she reverted to her old grip. Elrond chuckled, but made no move to correct her.

When she'd struggled for long enough, though, Elrond took her hand and, further down the page, guided her hand in forming the alphabet (after correcting her grip again). She recited the names this time.

When they were done, Elrond told her to put her things away and come with him. Penelope knew this command from experience. She obediently put her things in her room and returned.

Elrond led her to a room with a large loom in it and a smaller one. A blond elf sat at the larger one, weaving.

"This is Lauriel. She is weaving," Elrond said. He repeated the word 'to weave' in the infinitive. Penny automatically recited all the conjugations. Elrond then had a brief conversation with Lauriel. Penelope caught several words, including one that she had heard several times but had not been taught. Ironically it was the verb 'to teach' she suspected and grinned. It was nice when things just clicked.

"Penelope, Lauriel will teach you to weave," Elrond told her.

"Lauriel teaches I weaving. You teach I writing."

Elrond smiled. "Yes. Lauriel teaches _me_ weaving. You teach _me_ writing."

Penelope laughed at the thought of Elrond weaving, and at the thought of her teaching anyone to write. "No. Lauriel teaches _me_ weaving. _You_ teach _me_ writing."

"Yes. Very good."

Elrond left as the lesson began. He had expected Aragorn to arrive today, but there was still no sign of him. He found Bilbo enjoying the sun and sat beside him.

"So, you sent young Penelope to learn weaving, I hear," Bilbo said.

"Yes," Elrond said. "I hope she enjoys it. Kieran draws or explores Imladris in his spare time. It would be nice if she had a hobby other than day dreaming."

"She does hesitate to wander, doesn't she? At least without her brother. She doesn't quite have his sense of direction, I think. They're learning the language quite rapidly."

"Considering that we have no common language. Penelope grasps the language faster, but she forces her brother to keep up. She's starting to teacher herself new words. Kieran's an accomplished artist. He's already made several maps of Rivendell. They're both intelligent. I watch them talk to each other and I don't understand any of it, but I can see the complexity of their ideas."

"Yes. It's a shame they're so limited here, but I find it hard to believe that you understand nothing."

"I understand little. Penelope's idea of learning is to teach me at the same time, and I listen to her teach Kieran at times. He seems to like math."

"For all they look alike, they certainly are different people. Perhaps you should teach them swordsmanship and archery. They might need it some day."

"You are right. Perhaps when Aragorn arrives, or when Elladan and Elrohir return." He paused, remembering the sorrow in their eyes that never left. "They are not happy."

"Of course not. They're isolated, cannot understand anyone."

"It is deeper than that. I cannot understand their words, but I can read their hearts, at least in part."

Bilbo nodded. "They look rather like Frodo did after his parents died."

"Where did you disappear to today?" Kieran asked at supper.

"I'm learning how to weave. Lauriel's teaching me." They spoke English to each other, though Elrond was with them.

"We're fifteen today."

"Are we?"

"You always were terrible with dates. I learned the calendar they use."

"How?"

"I stole your book and read the appendix okay? Anyhow, it's October fifteenth."

"Happy birthday. I'm sorry I didn't realize. I don't have anything for you."

"Maybe we should celebrate tomorrow."

Penny smiled. "Okay."

"Should we tell Elrond?"

"I don't know. This is weird. We've never had a birthday without Mum, Dad, and half a dozen sugar shocked kids running around."

"We wouldn't have had Dad this year."

Penelope nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak. She cleared her throat. "I know. Still. How do you think Mum and the kids are doing?"

"I don't know." Kieran became very busy with his food.

Penny put her fork down. "It must be hard on them. I know Katrina and Alice had their birthday last month, but it's ours and they don't even know if we're sill alive."

"Do we have to talk about this?"

Elrond, seeing how dangerously near tears Penny was, stopped eating and asked. "What's wrong?" The children looked at him quizzically. "What's bad?"

"Oh, what's wrong," Penny repeated in English, then in Sindarin without any of her usual enthusiasm for the new word. How to say 'birthday?' Bilbo Baggins had celebrated one last month, but she hadn't been able to pick the word out of the conversation. "It's our birthday," she said in English. She pointed to herself and Kieran and made the sign for birthday. It wasn't the clearest sign in the world, so she made the sign for baby, then day, pointed to herself and Kieran again and said in Sindarin, "Yesterday we is fourteen. Today we is fifteen."

"We were fourteen. We are fifteen," Elrond corrected gently. "Today is your birthday."

"Birthday," both twins echoed. Penny silently repeated it once more, rolling the new word around in her mouth to get a feel for it. She did that a lot these past few months.

"You some-new-word your family," Elrond said.

They could both fill in the blank and nodded. "We miss our family," Kieran said.

"May I be excused?" Penny asked.

Elrond nodded his consent and she left, going to her room. She wasn't hungry anymore. She wanted her family back. She wanted people who could understand her so she wouldn't have to think like a two year old anymore just to talk. She wanted Mum to hold her and tell her it would be okay. And while she was wishing, she wanted Dad to magically appear and be all right.

It was a while before Kieran came in and watched Penny not cry. She was just sitting on the bed, her knees drawn to her chest.

Kieran sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulder. "I miss them too. Have you cried yet? About Dad?"

"I cried when we found out, and I cried the night he died. Kieran, you went to see the movies, and I know you liked it because you wouldn't shut up about it. Why didn't you ever read the books?"

"Dad loved those books so much. I wanted to wait until I could read them with him. I planned on reading them when he got better. I actually read the Hobbit to get ready. Why didn't you ever see the movie, Pen? You'd have loved it."

"Same reason you didn't read the books. I read them to Dad, actually. He was in the hospital most of the time when it was in theatres. When it came out on video. . .I watched the prologue with him. He fell asleep. I wanted to wait, to see it with him. I guess now I don't have to."

"If we get back you should. It has a good sound track. You'd like that, at least."

"If we get back. I want to go home. I'm worried about Mum and the kids."

"Maybe it's best that we're here," Kieran said slowly. "We'd just be two more mouths to feed."

"How can you say that? It's better to be in a place where we communicate like two year olds? It's better to live in a place where you'll be functional in the language at best? We're learning Sindarin; Elvish. That's no good outside Imladris. If we ever leave we'll need to learn the common tongue. I finally learned how to say 'what' today. I'm learning how to say 'to be' in various conjugations. I still have no idea what the infinitive is. Mum's probably worried sick. She has no free childcare. We might have been able to get jobs and help out, but hey--she only has to feed four kids. Not six."

"And here I was worried that you were being far too accepting of this."

"On the outside I have to be."

"Why?"

"When was the last time Katrina or Alice came to you for help with anything but math homework? Or Jared or Ben, for that matter."

"Hey, I taught Jared and Ben to climb trees. Kat and Allie too."

"Yeah, and guess who they came running to when they fell out of the trees. The ones who could run, anyhow."

"Point taken. You do seem to be the emotionally supportive one while I help out with the more technical things. Why is that?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because you look at the world in numbers and I look at it some other way.  
"Dad once told me that you see the world through music and language."

"Funny. He told me that you see it through math and art--visual art."

"Kat and Alice aren't as different as we are."

"Ben and Jared aren't either, but they're not as connected as we are either."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that they're more independent of each other. We balance each other, like Mum and Dad balanced each other. Not so much anymore, but we still do in some ways. You wouldn't have been able to learn the language without me and I'd still get lost trying to find my way around without you. So, what do you want for your birthday?"

Kieran considered. "A song"

"A song? The lord of the paint wants a song?"

He shrugged. "I miss your singing. You haven't sung since Dad died."

Penny looked down. "You haven't drawn anything but maps or basic sketches. You haven't finished anything. I want a picture."

Kieran stood to leave. "I should get busy then."

"Yeah, me too. Good night."

"Night."

The next day was better. The twins remained locked in their rooms for the most part, busy with their various projects. Kieran did go to 'borrow' some paint early on. He didn't keep any in his room, as he hadn't used colour in a long time.

Penny practiced running up and down her scales, doing various musical exercises. After four months she could no longer turn her voice on and off at will. She also had to choose a song. She knew several from years in church and school choirs.

Kieran brought a rolled up piece of paper to the supper table. After the meal, Elrond had a small cake brought out for dessert. There were no candles, or icing, but it looked good. It tasted even better. Penny guessed that it was a honey cake of some sort.

After dessert Kieran unrolled the paper and gave it to Penny. It was a painting of their family, all of it. It looked like they were in a park of some sort.

Penny smiled; blinking back tears and threw herself at Kieran. "Thank you."

Kieran returned the hug. "It's just a sketch I did. Then I added some paint. Your turn."

Penny straightened and stepped back. "Oh sure. You wait till I can barely talk to ask me to sing."

"And you have to sing here. In front of Elrond."

"Nein, bitte."

"In English."

"Sorry. Okay. When I Am A Roaming."

She sang it shyly at first, but with growing confidence. It felt good to sing again, like she'd found something she hadn't known she'd lost, but wasn't quite whole without.

Elrond smiled as he watched and listened.

A few days later Kieran took Penny exploring just outside of Rivendell. In two months this was the first time they'd left the confines of Imladris. Truth be told, wandering in the forest made them a bit nervous. Last time they'd gone exploring they'd ended up here. Elrond seemed anxious about something, but Penny didn't know how to ask about it, and wasn't sure she'd get an answer even if she could. She was just glad to get outside. 

Kieran had brought a pencil and sketchpad. "Sit on that log. I want to draw you."

Penny cocked her head. "Why? You see me everyday."

"That is why. I have a picture of you at home--in New Berlin--and I want one of you here. In Imladris."

"Okay, first of all we aren't technically in Imladris, and secondly, why?"

"To see how you've changes. You look like an elf-maiden except you don't have pointed ears."

"I do not look like an elf. I'm far too short, and not fair enough. I've never seen or heard of an elf with green eyes."

"Just sit," Kieran laughed.

Something moved in the leaves and Penny held up her hand. "Shut up. I heard something."

"Me too. I'm not deaf. It's probably a chipmunk."

"It's too big to be a chipmunk, and the sound didn't move."

"Okay. Let's check it out."

Penny pointed to her right. "It's over there somewhere."

"Lead on."

She did and almost tripped over what she found. It was a man with dark hair and clothes lying unconscious on the forest floor.

"Watch out," Kieran snapped.

"Sorry." Penny crouched down and felt the man's neck for a pulse and was relieved to find one, albeit weaker than it should be and much too fast. "He's alive." Her hand moved to his forehead. "He has a fever. Go get Elrond."

"Why me?"

She turned the stranger onto his side, putting him in the recovery position. "Because you're less likely to get lost and I'm the one always patching things up."

"True." He left at a run.

Penny sent a silent prayer to God, Iluvatar or any other power that might be listening, that Kieran wouldn't break something before reaching Lord Elrond. After he found the elf his limbs were his own business, but she needed him to make it there alive first.

Gently she tapped the stranger's shoulder. "Mister, can you hear me? Sir? Can you hear me? Please speak Sindarin. You hear me, you speak. Understand?" Nothing, but talking made her feel better, so she continued as she checked for obvious injures, carefully avoiding the sword, bow, arrows, multiple knives. What was this guy for him to need so many weapons? "My brother is getting help. Elrond helps you." Why was she bothering with Sindarin? English was so much easier, and it wasn't as if the unconscious man cared. So she continued, adding Sindarin when she could, but not worrying about it. "What are you doing so near Rivendell? Those weapons look almost elvish, but you're as human as me. Are you a friend of Elrond? It makes sense, I guess." And when she realised several minutes later who this man must be, it was so obvious that she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it immediately.

Elrond was in his study when Kieran burst in panting. The child grabbed Elrond's hand and began pulling, speaking rapidly. "Come. Man hurt. Come. In forest."

Elrond stood, getting enough of the message to realise the urgency. It couldn't be… "Show me."

It was Aragorn. Of course it was. Elrond knelt down to let Penelope show him the broken off orc arrow embedded in Aragorn's shoulder. Elrond's face was grave, which only added to the fear etched on Penelope's face. Kieran looked concerned too, but more distanced. Almost cut off.

"Go home. Get hot water and Athelas."

Penelope nodded. Kieran mouthed, 'Athelas?' Penelope said something in English and Kieran nodded. They ran off, easily avoiding the obstacles in their path.

Elrond was pleased when he found everything needed for healing already in the guest room closest to his when he got there. Kieran led him there. Penelope was waiting and pointed out where the various items were. They paid too much attention, those two, to be able to find and set everything up, but there was no time to dwell on that now. Aragorn needed medical attention immediately. The wound was almost certainly poisoned.

"Go," Elrond ordered more sharply than he had ever spoken to the twins before.

Kieran didn't hesitate. He went to the door and waited for his sister.

"I help?" Penelope asked.

"No," Elrond snapped. "Go study."

"Yes, my lord."

She left with Kieran, and Elrond turned to his patient. This would take some time. When Arwen learned what had happened she came in, but Elrond sent her out too. He needed quiet to do this. Absolute quiet.

In the morning Penelope and Kieran re-entered the guest room, now a sick room. Penelope was in the lead, which had to be a first. She had also tied her hair back for the first time in well over a month. Kieran looked hesitant to enter. He said something to Penelope, to which she snapped a response.

"Is he good?" Penelope asked.

"Is he all right? No," Elrond said. "He is ill." There was no way he could explain that, or show it easily, but Penelope nodded, repeating the word, then saying what must be the English translation. "He has a high fever," Elrond specified. To this, Penelope shook her head. He took her hand and led her to Aragorn's bedside. "His name is Aragorn. He has a fever." He laid her hand on Aragorn's forehead and saw her frown deepen. "Fever." Then he put her hand against his forehead. "No fever."

Penelope pulled her hand free and laid it on Aragorn's forehead again. "Fever. Bad fever."

"Yes. It's very high."

"I help?"

"No. You cannot help. Go eat your breakfast."

She nodded and let Kieran lead her away. Why was the girl so reluctant to leave? She had been last night. She was today. She also wanted to help. What did she expect to do? Or was it that she was asking if she had helped? He had been far too short with them last night. There was no way they could understand what was going on. Kieran, on the other hand, seemed to want nothing to do with Aragorn.

Arwen came in. "How is he?"

"I believe he will recover, but it will take time. He is very ill. The poison is strong. He must be watched carefully for the next few days."

"I will sit with him. Go and eat. The children seem upset, especially the girl."

Elrond stood reluctantly, knowing his daughter was right. "I will go. Send for me if anything changes."

"Yes, Ada." She put a hand on his arm and sat.

Elrond squeezed Arwen's shoulder and left. By the time he got to the dining hall, Kieran and Penelope were in the middle of an argument that he couldn't even begin to understand. They were speaking much too quickly. Neither of them were even sitting down, but rather standing, shouting across the table. Of course they'd had arguments before. He'd seen them raise their voices, and dessert each other at times. They were children after all, and siblings had a way of annoying each other when they were young. He remembered that well enough from when his own children were small. Never before had these two actually yelled before, though, let alone for this length of time. Kieran was merely shouting, his voice tinged with concern as well as anger. Penelope was yelling. She seemed angry, frustrated, and closer to tears than Elrond had ever seen her before.

After only another minute Penelope turned and fled the dining hall, tears streaming down her face, and was gone before Elrond could stop her. Kieran made no move to follow, which was unusual.

"Sit," Elrond ordered, exasperated. Kieran obeyed sullenly. "What was that about? Why were you fighting?"

"I don't understand you," Kieran snapped.

"You understand enough," Elrond said, keeping his voice carefully calm, "to tell me why your sister is crying." He brought his fingers to his face to indicate imaginary tears. "Why is Penelope crying?"

"She cannot help Aragorn. She--" he broke off and tapped his head.

"Thinks?" Elrond supplied.

"She thinks she. . ." he trailed off again.

"She thinks she should be able to help. She thinks she should help."

"Should?"

"Should. You draw. You should draw more. She sings. She should sing more."

"I should not yell."

Good. He understood. "No, you should not yell at your sister. Why does she think she should be able to help?"

"My Ada was ill." Kieran stared at the table and said something in English.

"I don't understand," Elrond said, though he had guessed what caused the twins' grief after his talk with Bilbo the other day.

"Ada. . ." Kieran put his hands in front of him, right palm up, left palm down and turned them so the opposite was true. Then he put his thumb with an open hand to his forehead, put his hand over his face and closed his fingers to close his eyes. The last thing he did was to hold his hands, thumb and index finger together, by his eyes, and open both the fingers and eyes at the same time, then shake his head and make an x motion in front of his chest.

"You're father died," Elrond said softly, "and now Penelope believes she should have done more, and you are afraid to care about anyone who may die."

"My father died," Kieran repeated, staring at the table.


	2. disclaimer

Sorry I forgot to do this in chapter one. This is my first published fanfic and I'm still figuring out how to do this. 

Disclaimer: Penny and Kieran are mine. Any characters obviously not Tolkien's are mine. The plot is mine. Most characters and settings are not mine, however. They are Tolkien's. I'm just having fun with them.


	3. Barriers, Understanding, and Song

Thanks for all the reviews!!! Just to clear a few language points up, as I realise not everyone's taken a third language for three years like I have. 1) Infinitives are the form of the verb you'd probably find in a dictionary, and in some cases it's the only form that would appear in a between languages dictionary, e.g. French-English dictionary. In English the infinitive is usually the verb preceded by the word 'to.' For example, the infinitive of 'run' is just that; 'to run'. 2) Conjugations are the form a verb takes with a noun or pronoun. Conjugations of 'to run' are 'I run,' 'you run,' 'he/she/it runs,' 'they run,' 'we run.' Hopefully that clears a bit up. Now that the difficulties have been established, the rest of the story shouldn't be as technical. If I do use a word or words that you don't understand, though, tell me in a review. I'll try to clear it up.

Once again, Tolkien's characters are Tolkien's. My characters are mine. The settings are pretty much all Tolkien's. From now on I'll just let the disclaimer stand, as I did devote a separate chapter to it the first time.

Penny sat in the hayloft of the stables and wiped the tears from her eyes. It wasn't fair. If she wanted to help Aragorn, Kieran didn't have the right to stop her. Just because he was afraid to care about anyone didn't mean she had to be. And he didn't have the right to remind her how useless she'd been when Dad was sick. She hoped Elrond wasn't mad at her for running off. She had seen his arm reach out before she'd disappeared. She should go back, she knew. She was hungry for one thing, and she couldn't run away from things any more. Not just yet though. She loved the sweet smell of the hay and the small, square bales made a good seat. Light filtered through the eastern window, illuminating tiny particles of dust suspended in the air. Beneath her she could hear the horses moving in their stalls and the elves bringing food and water to them. Wheelbarrows were rolled as the stalls were cleaned. She couldn't understand the conversation, though occasionally she picked a word or two out of the din.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there when Elrond climbed up the ladder to the loft, surprising Penny. It was hard to picture the elven lord climbing into a hayloft, but here he was. He came and sat beside her in the hay.

He said something. She couldn't understand all of it, but it sounded like Kieran had told him something about her father. He repeated a word--a verb by the sound of it--and made the ASL sign for dead. "Kieran told me your father died."

Penelope sighed and nodded. "He was sick."

"You want to help Aragorn."

"Yes."

"Why? Because you could not help your father?"

The unfamiliar words had to be why and because. They made sense. "No. I want to help because he is sick."

"Because he needs help?"

"To need?"

"He needs help. You need food. You need water."

"I understand."

"Good. Are you all right?"

She remembered that word from earlier. "Yes."

Elrond put an arm around her shoulder. "Come eat your breakfast. You can help after lunch."

Penny gave a small smile. "Why?" Hopefully it was the right word.

"Because he needs help and you need to help." He stood and pulled Penny to her feet. "Come. Breakfast."

After breakfast, Lauriel showed Penny a small, narrow loom, about the right width to make bandages. This one would fit on a desk or table. She helped Penny get the cloth started and watched as she weaved, correcting the errors. After only twenty minutes though, Lauriel had Penny put it away and moved on to teaching her how to prepare wool, and other fibres used for weaving. They were starting out with wool because it was the least expensive.

After the lesson Lauriel gave Penny the small loom to take with her, and a supply of thread. Penny nodded and thanked her before running off to lunch. As soon as she was done she took her loom to Aragorn's room.

Both Elrond and Arwen were there. Elrond was using a cloth soaked in Athelas water to try to lower Aragorn's fever. He gave a small smile when he saw the loom and the inch of cloth woven on it. He pointed to the corner and said, "Put it there."

She did and walked over to where Elrond was sitting by the bed. He showed her how to soak, ring out, and apply the cloth, explaining what he was doing. She could have figured out what to do herself, but the explanation was welcome, so she let him finish before taking the cloth. It seemed even this could become a language lesson.

Arwen looked as though she wanted to protest a fifteen-year-old Edain being allowed to play nurse, but said nothing.

"Arwen, go eat something," Elrond ordered.

"Ada," Arwen protested.

"Arwen."

She left, though obviously not willingly. After a few minutes Elrond stepped outside, motioning for Penny to stay. He probably had to get something, Penny thought. She returned her attention to Aragorn and felt his forehead. His fever seemed a little lower today.

The silence was deafening. While Elrond and Arwen were present, there was always some sound in the room, but now the large, bright room seemed to emphasise her isolation. Maybe Aragorn could hear her. Even if he couldn't, she had to talk, and she had to speak English, if only to hear the familiar language of her home. A kind voice was a kind voice, something she could well appreciate from her time here. And Aragorn wasn't in a position to look at her like she had a hole in her head for speaking 'gibberish.'

"I know you can't understand me, but that's okay. If I spoke Sindarin I'd have almost nothing to say, so this is better anyway. Elrond'll come back. Don't worry. You'll understand him and Lady Arwen when they talk. I've had a lot of practice taking care of sick people in the mean time, so you're in good hands. My dad was sick, and I have four younger siblings, so I have a lot of experience. I guess I should tell you my name. The full thing's Penelope Aislinn Ryan, but you can call me Penny. I come from a place called New Berlin. It's a city in Canada. Believe it or not, that's in a whole other universe I think. A lot of Germans settled in New Berlin--that's how it got its name. Germany's another country. My grandmother came from there, on my mum's side. The rest of my grandparents are from Ireland. No one here knows that though. It's funny. I know about this world. I know what's going to happen to you, but I couldn't tell you if I wanted to." She looked up to see Elrond watching from the door. He couldn't have gone far, if he'd ever really left. She blushed and switched to Sindarin. "Elrond is here."

The elf-lord took his seat again and Penny lapsed into silence.

For the next few days, Elrond let Penny help with Aragorn for a few hours in the afternoon. She was good at simple things, and at talking softly or humming. Kieran appeared occasionally in the doorway. He wouldn't stay for more than a few minutes, though, no matter how much Penny begged.

"I'm not going to bother worrying about someone who's probably going to die anyway," he said once.

"Aragorn is not going to die," Penny said a little to sharply.

Kieran just shook his head and left.

"Don't pay any attention to him," Penny told the unconscious figure on the bed. "He's just scared. He's never been much good in hospitals."

On the evening of the fourth day Penny was in Kieran's room when a servant came to get them. They had been practicing their writing by candle light, but left it and followed the elf obediently. When Kieran realised that they were headed towards Aragorn's room he hung back, but Penny grabbed his arm impatiently and pulled him along. It was after nightfall, so the halls and rooms were lit by candle.

When they got there Aragorn was sitting up in bed, sipping a cup of broth. Both Arwen and Elrond looked very relieved. Though the Ranger still looked pale, Penny guessed that the danger had passed.

Relief flooded Penny and she broke into a huge grin. "He's awake!" she announced to Kieran, squeezing his hand. She repeated her announcement in Sindarin.

"Ow! Let go! I can see that he's awake." Kieran sounded annoyed, but couldn't keep a smile off his face.

"Sorry," Penny said, letting go. 

"Come in," Elrond said.

The twins stepped further into the room and the servant left. They stood quietly, waiting for someone to say something.

Aragorn was the one to break the silence. Penny caught most of the first sentence, and could see that Kieran did to. There was only one word they didn't know. The rest of it went over their heads, though and they looked to Elrond in confusion.

Elrond repeated the first sentence, and said the new word, then "Helping."

So the sentence could also be translated as, "Thank you for helping me."

"Helping?" Kieran asked Penny in English.

She thought about it for a moment. "I helped by taking care of him."

"Caring for someone, helping. It makes sense."

Penny turned back to Aragorn and smiled. "You're welcome," she said in Sindarin. "I'm _happy_," she indicated her smile as she could only say happy in English, "you are all right."

Elrond filled in the missing word. Then he sent them back to their rooms. He'd only wanted to show them that Aragorn was all right.

Once Aragorn was back on his feet Kieran was the one to spend the most time with him. He started learning archery while Penny was weaving with Lauriel. It was much easier to learn (or teach) a skill such as weaving or archery than it was to learn a language. Demonstrations could be used instead of verbal explanations.

In the evenings Penny would often sit and watch Aragorn and Kieran in the training court. Sometimes she brought her portable loom, or a writing pad. Watching Kieran was funny. He'd grip the bow, and Aragorn would invariably adjust his hand slightly. Then the arrow would go up and Kieran would take about three minutes to aim before shooting. Nine times out of ten he would lower the bow slightly as he shot and hit the wall below the target. Eventually he started aiming above the target. This brought his success rate to about 30%--if one counted hitting the target at all a success.

About two weeks into these practices Kieran managed not to dip the bow as he shot and embedded an arrow in the ceiling. Penny laughed.

"You try if you think it's so easy," Kieran told her.

"I don't think it's so easy. I just think that after three days of hitting the floor and a week and a half of hitting the wall it's funny that you hit the ceiling," Penny said.

"I'd still like to see you try. It's a good skill to learn. And I never hit the floor."

"Oh, no. I'm not trying that. I'd probably kill someone."

"Who?"

"You've played Frisbee with me. How did you put it? It took me seven years to achieve sixty percent accuracy, while it took Kat, Allie, Ben and Jared half that time to achieve ninety percent. But at least it was good exercise."

"Try," Kieran said, walking over and shoving the bow into Penny's hands.

"Everyone in a three kilometre radius should run for cover."

Kieran yanked Penny to her feet and steered her to where he had been standing. "Just try once. You'll probably end up needing it and you're right. You should start now because it will take you a few years."

Aragorn took her left hand and placed it on the bow. He showed her how to put an arrow up and aim before shooting his own bow. Then he pointed to the quiver on the ground. "You're turn."

Penny took an arrow and tried to hold it like she was supposed to. Kieran corrected her and explained how to aim and shoot. Then he took Aragorn to a spot about ten feet to the left and behind her.

"Not funny," Penny muttered. She took five minutes trying to line up the shot before deciding that her aim was close enough. And she dropped the arrow just before she released the string.

Kieran burst out laughing. When Penny, beet red, turned to face her audience, she found Aragorn suppressing a chuckle as well.

"At least we don't have to worry about you killing anybody," Kieran offered.

"Can't we just accept that I'll make my living weaving bandages to patch you up after your orc hunts?" Penny asked. She switched to Sindarin and asked Aragorn, "Must I learn archery?"

Aragorn nodded. "Yes. Try again."

So she took out a hair tie, tied her hair back, and dropped another arrow.

A few days later Elladan and Elrohir returned from their hunting trip. As soon as they had bathed and changed they met with Elrond and Aragorn in the dining hall for lunch and to discuss the hunt. After they had gone over the orc movements, Elrond directed the conversation to the secondary objective of Elladan and Elrohir's hunt.

"Have you found any clues as to how Penelope and Kieran were brought to Middle Earth?" Elrond asked.

"No," Elladan said. "We searched the forest around where we found them and found nothing. We also asked those we met in our travels if they had found or heard of any people who spoke a strange language and wore clothes similar to the twins'. How are they progressing?"

"As well as can be expected," Elrond said. "They are learning. They can now communicate simple ideas. Their communication skills are now about equal to those of a four-year-old child. Perhaps you should see for yourselves."

"Have they learned anything other than Sindarin?" Elrohir asked. "Have you tried teaching them Common Speech?"

Elrond shook his head. "It would be too confusing for them to try to learn two languages simultaneously. For now it is best that they master one, and as Sindarin is used in everyday speech here, it is easier for them to learn it first. When they know enough Sindarin I will teach them the Common Speech. Penelope is learning weaving, and Aragorn is trying to teach both of them archery. Perhaps you could help him with that."

"Why do you think they were brought here, Ada?" Elrohir asked. "They are not suited for life in Middle Earth."

"My guess is that they were brought here by some magic, though for good or ill I cannot say. When Mithrander comes I will ask him, but until then I must ask all of you to keep your ears open for any information about this. I do not like the idea of people falling between worlds."

"How do you know they are from another world?" Aragorn asked. "They could merely be from a distant land."

"When they first came here, I believed that may be the case, but there have been no reports of others like them, and I have seen parts of their home in Kieran's drawings. It is difficult to explain, but I feel that they are not from Arda."

"When I went to the Blue Mountains several years ago," Aragorn said thoughtfully, "I heard a story of a man and his wife who disappeared probably close to sixty years ago now. The story goes that a wizard made a mistake in a spell and they vanished as they walked through the forest. The man's brother saw them, but by the time he reached the place where they vanished. . ." He paused briefly. "The mystery was never solved, but it sounds as though the children came here in a similar way."

"The Blue Mountains are hundreds of miles away," Elrohir said.

"True, but they do resemble the people somewhat, and there is no telling how far the magic could reach, or if a similar mistake was made again."

Elrond considered what he had just heard. "There is no time to send anyone to the Blue Mountains, but have any Ranger who passes near them to listen for anything that may be connected to this. When the twins are ready I will send them to investigate if we have no better leads."

"Should we wait that long?" Elladan asked.

"We have no choice," Elrond said. "The Shadow is growing. We cannot afford to devote resources to this problem. At least they will be safe here."

That afternoon Elladan, Elrohir, and Aragorn helped the Edain twins with their archery and introduced them to the sword. Penny was somewhat better with a blade than a bow. They used wooden practice swords for now to avoid injury. After Elladan and Elrohir demonstrated the attacks and blocks on each other, Aragorn helped Penny and Kieran replicate them. Generally Kieran picked up on both attacks and blocks first, while Penny invented her own blocks out of necessity. Then Kieran would patiently show her exactly what to do and talk her through it. It worked so much better when she could hear what she was supposed to do. Still, neither of them was bad for their first time. They weren't great, but there was hope. Penny even managed not to drop the arrow during the archery portion of the lesson. The first arrow only went about two feet, and the ones that actually made it to the wall did just that--they made it to the wall about three feet below or to the side of the target, but it was a start. Kieran hit the inner half of the target twice. He rarely hit the wall anymore.

As they walked through the gardens on the way back to their rooms, Aragorn began to hum softly. It was a tune Penny knew well.

"Have I heard that song before?" Kieran whispered to her.

"You don't have to whisper; they can't understand us," Penny pointed out. "Yes, we have." She softly began to sing the words. They weren't in English, but they weren't in Sindarin either. She understood them though, mainly because her father had written out the translation before she and Kieran had been born. In English it was:

__

When the Shadow rises in the East

And Darkness covers all the land

The king will rise and claim his throne,

The Shadow drive away.

But now the Shadow sleeps, my child,

And there is naught to fear.

Rest your head upon your bed

And I will dry your tears.

For light will come with morning's dawn,

And the evening stars shine clear.

Sleep in peace until the day

And I will guard you in my arms

Until the King returns.

Aragorn stopped humming when Penny began singing. He and the elf-twins stared at her as she sang.

"I can't believe I forgot," Kieran said when she'd finished. "Gramma's lullaby."

"How do you know that song?" Aragorn asked.

"My father's mother sings it."

"You're grandmother," Aragorn said automatically. "Do you understand it?"

"Yes. Dad made it English."

"That song is in the Common Tongue. The Dunedain sing it. It was written near the Blue Mountains."

"What?" That wasn't possible.

Instead of going to their rooms as planned, Aragorn led them to Elrond and a rapid conversation that went entirely over Penny and Kieran's head ensued. Something about song, Dunedain, Blue Mountains.

'What on earth is going on?' Kieran asked in sign language. There was no way either of them were going to talk through this meeting.

'I have no idea,' Penny signed back. 'How can Gramma's lulluby be in the Common Speech? I know Dad was obsessed with Tolkien, but. . ."

'Maybe she came from here.'

'That's ridiculous. Or not. Her accent isn't really Irish. Neither is Grampa's. It's still ridiculous.'

'I just want to figure out how we got here, so I can figure out how to get back.'

'Don't hold your breath. It could take a while.'

That's it for this chapter. Originally I wasn't going to do this. I was just going to skip to what will now be chapter three, but I thought we needed something to bridge the gap. Chapter three should be better, and longer. I'll skip ahead in time a bit just because for what I want to do with this, the twins need to be functional in at least one Middle Earth language. It could also be a while as March Break is almost over, and once I get back to school I'll be knee deep in at least three culminating assignments. Those are pesky things we have in Ontario that comprise anywhere between 10%-30% of you final mark depending on the course. Please review. I love good reviews. I also love constructive criticism. In my Writer's Craft class I think we lose marks if we don't find something wrong during peer editing. As long as it's coherent I'll take it gladly. Thanks!


	4. Where Are We Going?

Thanks for the reviews. I didn't think my last chapter was particularly strong, so the positive feedback was really nice.

**Note:** **Important!!! This chapter takes place four years after the twins were brought to Middle Earth. They have just turned nineteen years old. It is 3018, the year the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. Also, assume all conversations between the twins and Elrond, Bilbo or Aragorn take place in Sindarin unless stated otherwise. All conversations between Penny and Kieran themselves are in English, and so I don't have to repeat all the dialogue, any conversations between them and the hobbits are being translated back and forth by Bilbo, Aragorn or another third party. They don't speak much Common Tongue yet. Also, for the purposes of this story, the name 'Aislinn' is pronounced 'Eye-slinn ' instead of with a long 'a' at the beginning. That's just how pronunciations work in Middle Earth. I read it in the appendix.**

Answers to questions. I have been asked if there are sheep in Rivendell to get wool from, which is a good point as I stated that Penny uses wool in the last chapter. Truth be told, I've never heard of sheep in Rivendell, but then I've never heard of wheat fields, cows or chickens in Rivendell either, and no one seems to question the existence of bread, butter, cheese or cakes so I must assume that whether the elves have a farm in Rivendell or trade for supplies, they have access to flour, milk and eggs. I don't think it's too far a stretch to assume that they can acquire wool from the same source, be it farm or trade. Thanks for pointing it out, though. It's nice to have readers who notice details and ask questions. Keeps me on my toes.

Oh, and LeeLee, I did mention in the first chapter that the twins know sign language, and I've used it occasionally. I've just tried to keep it low key before.

A few hours after nightfall, Penny and Kieran watched from the trees of Imladris as Glorfindel led Aragorn and four hobbits to the House of Elrond. One looked sick, even from this high perch in the dim light.

"I thought Arwen was supposed to bring Frodo here," Kieran said.

Penelope laughed.

"What? In the movie she rescued them."

"Probably needed to incorporate her into the story. Elrond will be busy for the next four days or so. So will Bilbo, I imagine, probably Aragorn."

"In other words we'll be ignored. More so than the past few weeks."

"Less teaching and more homework. Basically. More maps, more cultures and customs."

"More Common Speech."

"You may hate it now, but you'll be glad when you learn it. It's nice to learn a language in the normal way."

"I'd be just as happy to go back to Canada and speak English."

"I know. Let's go. It's late."

They climbed down the tree and made their way inside. Aragorn and three hobbits were outside one of the guest rooms looking weary, worn and worried. The door was closed and Penny would have smiled were the situation not so serious."

"Were you kicked out, or were you even allowed in?" Penny asked in Sindarin.

"We were not allowed in," Aragorn said.

"Oh, speak Common," one of the hobbits--a stout, one with brown/blond hair--said. "We don't speak Elvish."

Penny switched languages. "I am sorry. I speak little Common and my brother speaks less."

"Who are you?"

"Penelope Ryan, but my friends call me Penny. My brother's called Kieran."

Aragorn introduced the hobbits as Samwise Gamgee--the one who'd spoken, Meriodoc Brandybuck, and Perigrin Took. The twins nodded politely as if it were news to them.

"Come with me. You need food," Penny said.

"We're not going anywhere," Sam informed her.

Penny switched back to Sindarin, having reached the limit of her ability in Common. "Aragorn, your friend will be fine. Tell them that. Also tell them that they will be no good to their friend if they collapse from exhaustion.."

Aragorn translated and persuaded the hobbits to follow the Edain, but made no move to follow himself.

"She meant you too," Kieran said. "We need someone to translate."

"Of course. I forgot." the Ranger said and followed reluctantly.

"You must be tired. Come on. You know Penny; if she says you need food, you eat."

"She does have a stubborn streak in her, as do you."

"She's right though. This time. You look tired."

In the kitchen Penelope found soup and bread for herself, Kieran, and the travelers. There wasn't much talk as first hunger than fatigue stopped conversation before it started.

Pippin said something eventually to which Aragorn almost smiled.

"All right, I heard my name. What did he say?" Penny asked.

"He said that you are the strangest lady he's ever seen," Aragorn told her.

Penny glanced down at her outfit and nodded. "Probably. I'm no lady." She was wearing one of Kieran's shirts and a pair of his pants held in place by a cloth tie, and tucked into his boots. She had also borrowed one of this shirts, and the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. Her hair was pulled into a pony tail. "Ask him if he's ever tried climbing trees in a dress with loose hair."

A moment later Aragorn said, "Pippin says hobbits have the good sense to keep their feet on the ground whether they wear dresses or not."

"Just eat your supper. Then you should get some rest."

When the meal was finished the twins led Aragorn and the hobbits to the guest rooms they had seen prepared earlier.

"Does Elrond know you're doing this?" Aragorn asked as they showed him his room.

Kieran shrugged. "We told him we'd keep watch for you."

"Where were you? I didn't see you."

"In a tree."

"Penny can finally climb trees, can she?"

Penelope blushed as she remembered an incident that had happened about two years ago. "I heard that! I only fell out of that tree because I was sick."

"Good night, Aragorn," Kieran said and beat a hasty retreat.

"Good night, Kieran. Good night, Penny."

"Good night, Aragorn." She smiled sweetly as she left. Too sweetly. She'd get back at him for that. Eventually.

The day after the Council of Elrond the twins were introduced to Frodo. They had avoided the activity of the past few days, but now Bilbo was eager for them to get to know the hobbits even if he did have to act as translator. Aragorn was off somewhere in the wilds. The hobbits and the Edain sat in one of the unused rooms. Penny was cleaning a wooden flute. Kieran had his sketch pad and pencil out, as he usually did these days, and was drawing as they talked.

"You look much more like a lady today," Pippin observed of Penny.

The young woman, clad in a red dress that matched the colour of the autumn leaves of her homeland, nodded. "I'm sure I do, but I'm not a lady, Pippin."

"Where are you from that you don't speak Common?"

"New-Berlin, Ontario," Kieran said. "It's very far away in a land unknown to you."

Frodo stood and walked over to glance at Kieran's picture. It was a basic sketch of Aragorn and Arwen walking through a garden of birch trees. Arwen was laughing and Aragorn was smiling. The outline had been drawn earlier. Kieran was just filling in the details.

"Do they know you're drawing this?" Frodo asked.

"They don't even know I saw them yet," Kieran said without looking up.

"Why did you come to Rivendell?" Merry asked.

"I don't know. We were brought here."

"Kieran," Penny warned.

"I don't see the harm, Pen." To the hobbits he continued. "We were walking through the forest outside our grandparents' home, and then we were in the woods outside Rivendell. We don't know how and we don't know why."

"Why haven't you gone home?" Sam asked.

"We can't"

"Can't?"

Penny didn't want Kieran to give too much away. He had said too much already, really. "It's very far away," she said quickly. "Too far away to reach on horse. Besides, it's hard to travel when you don't know the language."

"True enough."

They were saved from further questioning by Arwen entering. "Penelope, Kieran, Ada wishes to see you in his study."

The twins stood. "Yes, milady," they answered simultaneously, and left.

Elrond was sitting at his desk looking over maps of Middle Earth.

"Are those for the Fellowship?" Kieran asked.

"No," Elrond said, seeming unsurprised that they knew of the Company before it was fully formed. "These are for you." He folded the maps and stood to face them.

"But we aren't going anywhere," Kieran said.

"Not yet," Elrond agreed. "Several times these past few years you have asked how you came to be in Middle Earth and why. I believe it is time for you to learn."

"You know?"

"I do not."

"Then how are we supposed to find out?"

"By leaving Rivendell and going to find out yourselves."

"So we're supposed to wander around Middle Earth until we stumble upon the answer. Do you realise the odds of that happening? Probably about a billion to one! Not to mention that we don't speak the language."

"I agree with Kieran," Penny said. "This is not a good time to wander. I doubt the Wilds were ever truly safe, but now the danger grows every day. War is coming."

"This is true. I will not dwell in Imladris forever, though, and neither can you. If there is a way to send you back to your world I would like to know it before I depart. I would have preferred to learn before the war."

"Well it's a little late for that," Kieran snapped.

"I know. You have not been ready to leave before now, however. You will leave in one month for the Blue Mountains. I will show you your route later, and I will provide a guide of course, and horses."

"Toll," Penny said sarcastically. There were still a few German words she used at times of stress. "Why then and why the Blue Mountains?"

"Because that is the right time, and because I believe you will find the answers you seek there."

"Why?"

"Trust me. You will be prepared by the time you leave."

Regardless of what Elrond said, the twins had little faith in their readiness for this journey, either now or in a month. Once they were dismissed from the study they went to their rooms to get their bows and quivers. Penny also tied her hair back. As lovely as it was loose, near waist-length hair was not something she wished not something she wished to contend with in archery practice.

In the long hall where they practiced archery only one elf was currently practicing and he was at the far end of the hall. From what they could see he had blond hair, but that was not uncommon. They stopped about half way down the hall, Kieran taking 'his' spot, where an arrow was still embedded in the ceiling directly over the bull's eye. He was the first to shoot, and it hit the inner half of the target. Penny hit the outside of the target the first time. Both got progressively closer to the centre as they continued. Kieran actually managed to hit the bull's eye twice. Penny was happy to get in the inner half of the target, but that happened consistently now.

They practiced the archery for an hour before leaving for another training court where they could practice their swordsmanship. They were on more equal footing here, and Penny liked it better. It was nice to have control of the blade at all times, unlike the arrows where once it was out of your hands it was out of your hands.

Eventually they went back for supper. They ate with the hobbits now most nights and tonight was no exception. It was easy to hide their silence behind the constant chatter of the little people. The fact that they understood less than half of what was being said gave an excuse, and they never said much at the dinner table.

Bilbo noticed, though. By dessert it was obvious that this was more than their usual silence. "You seem troubled," the old hobbit said in Sindarin.

"Elrond's sending us away in a month," Kieran told him.

"Are you sure?" Bilbo asked.

"He said as much. He's sending us on some sort of quest."

"It's more of a fact finding mission, really," Penny said. "We're going to the Blue Mountains to try to learn how we came here and why. I don't like it."

"I'm sure he wouldn't send you if you weren't ready."

"What if we're not ready?" Kieran asked. "We don't speak Common, we aren't great archers. We're not bad, but we're not great. We can handle swords. I'm not sure if he's sending us because we are ready or because there isn't time to wait until we are. He said. That we will be ready when we leave. Not that we are now."

"If Elrond says you will be ready, I'm sure you will be," Bilbo said reasonably. "He would never lie about such a thing."

Kieran sat back in his chair, chewing a bite of apple pie.

"I don't doubt that he believes we will be ready," Penny said, "but there is a difference between being truly ready for something, and being ready for it because you have to be. When our father died, we'd known it was coming for two years. We had time to prepare. I guess we were ready, as ready as we could have been at any rate, but that was because we had to be. I'm not sure ready is really the right word, but I can't think of a better one even in my own language. Prepared, perhaps. It's hard to explain, but even assuming we do have the necessary skills--even if we're ready in that sense--I don't think we really are."

"You think too much," Bilbo said. "Both of you, but I agree in this case. There are some things you can never be truly ready for, but you need to face them all the same."

"What if we'd rather stay in Rivendell until we're at least functional in Common?" Kieran asked. "I know we'll never be fluent--I won't at any rate--but it would be nice not to need a translator before we go."

"Oh, Kieran, my lad, that's just an excuse, I'm afraid," Bilbo said. "You may speak for both you and your sister in this matter, I don't know, so you'd both better listen. You'll never be ready to go to the Blue Mountains, just as I will never be ready to let Frodo go to Mordor, and he will never truly be ready to go, but you must go and see kin you've never met, and I must let Frodo go, and he, indeed must go. You aren't afraid of the journey so much, I think, than of what you will find when it ends."

"I'm afraid of being kidnapped by orcs, starving to death or my sister shooting me with her bow and arrow. There's nothing in the Blue Mountains to fear besides being shot at by people who may not be happy to see us."

"Not even being told that you cannot go home?" Bilbo asked. "You'll never be ready for that, I reckon, nor for choosing between your homeland and Middle Earth if it comes to that."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Kieran muttered.

Penny put a hand on his arm. "Stop it, Kieran," she said in English. "It is not his fault, and he speaks nothing but the truth we need to hear." Her voice was quiet and not unkind, but firm, leaving no room for argument. It was a tone her mother often took with difficult children, and sometimes adults.

Kieran shook his head and left. Penny stood to go after him. "Excuse me," she said in Common.

"Let him go," Bilbo said.

"I should go after him."

"Yes, but not now. He needs some time to cool off. Sit down and finish your dessert."

She shook her head. As delicious as the pie was, she now felt no desire to finish the half piece left on her plate. "I'm full."

"Penelope."

She sat and picked at her pie. Bilbo never used the full version of her name. 

When she'd finished, the elderly hobbit reached over and put another piece on her plate, complete with a dollop of whipped cream. She'd introduce the kitchen staff to the concept of not churning the cream all the way to butter some time ago. "You didn't eat near enough at supper. When you're done that, you can take Kieran a piece."

Kieran didn't want to talk about what Elrond had said, or what had happened at dinner, and couldn't think of anything else he wanted to talk about, so Penny just left the pie on his desk and left. She had her own homework to do, and if Kieran didn't want to talk he wouldn't. He was just as stubborn as his twin. She just hoped he wouldn't leave the talking until it was too late. Last time he had. When Mum had told them that Dad wouldn't be coming home, he'd refused to talk about it for days, leaving Penny alone. When he did talk about it, it was to say that nobody knew for certain that he'd die. Maybe he'd go into remission. Maybe a new treatment would work.

_"Kieran, please. You have to talk about it. You have to accept it. Go see him. Please," Penny begged in the living room of their house. The late May sun was streaming in, bathing the room in light._

"I don't have to see him today, or tomorrow, or next week because he'll be there when I don't have time to."

"He won't. Kieran, if you won't trust the doctors and Mum, then trust me. He doesn't have much time left. I can feel it."

"How can you feel it? Like magic or something from those books you read?"

Penny shook her head. "I see him every day, unlike you. He's dying. It hurts. I'm sorry, but it's true. If you don't say goodbye to him when you can, you'll regret it later. Maybe forever, he's your father."

"Dad can't die." He said each word like it was a separate sentence.

"The doctors give him three days."

"And you believe them?"

"Of course not. He's stronger than that. He'll probably last the week, just clinging to the hope that he'll see you again. But no matter how hard he fights, he can't last any longer than a week. I can feel it in my heart, I can see it in his eyes. I don't need a doctor to tell me that he's dying."

"How can you sit there? How can you sit there every day and watch him fade? Why not just wait. You don't know he's going to die."

"I do know. I've known for six months since he went out of remission again. I've known, sort of, since this all started two years ago. I knew he was sick before he ever admitted it. I could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. You must know. Look at the numbers, if nothing else. The numbers don't lie, and they're all against him. It's too late for new treatments."

"Not for miracles."

"If you're so sure he won't die, then there's no harm in coming to visit." Maybe this tactic would work.

"Don't you believe in miracles?"

It was so unlike Kieran to ask anything like that. Sure he went to church with the rest of the family, but he'd always asked more questions, and since he was ten he'd started to put more faith in science than God. He must be desperate, Penny thought, to be asking her if she believed in miracles. She considered her answer very carefully.

"Well?" Kieran prompted after a few minutes.

"I believe," Penny said slowly, "that the fact that Dad's lived so long with cancer is a miracle. I believe that the fact that he' s still alive now, giving us--giving you--a chance to say goodbye is a miracle. I don't think that we can expect anymore, and I don't think this chance will last forever."

"That's the oldest sounding thing you've ever said. And I don't like the answer."

"It's the oldest thing I've ever had to say, and you don't have to like the answer. You don't even have to accept it, but it's your loss if you don't. Just see him once. Write a letter if you can't go in person, but for your own sake, say goodbye."

"You know, some people would say for God's sake."

"But God's not the one who'll be hurt if you don't. You are."

"Don't you pray for him to get better."

Penny shook her head. "No. Not any more."

"What?" The look of shock on his face was terrible. He'd thought he knew his twin so well. "Why not?"

"I did. For the first twenty two months I did, but these past three I just pray that he's not in too much pain. It hurts him so badly, Kieran. I know it's bad that he'll die. It sucks. I hate it," her voice shook with the effort to contain her tears, to reach her brother, "but at least he won't be in pain. The pain will be over. It's bad that he'll die, but it's good that he won't be in pain anymore. If you'd just visit you'd see that and maybe it would be easier." A tear rolled down her cheek and she choked on the last two sentences. "He's ready to go. He's just waiting till we are."

"Well I'll never be. I'm not going."

He never had.

Penny sighed and took inventory of her closet. She'd have to get some pants and shirts before they left. Maybe she'd take one dress, for when they got to whatever settlement they were going to. There was a dark green one she liked. It replaced the one she'd worn her first day here. She'd outgrown that one long ago.

Glorfindel sat in the massive library of Imladris reading an old leather bound book. Though in good condition, the covers were slightly scuffed with long years of use, and no amount of care could prevent a slight yellowing of the ancient pages.

Elrond passed the shelves upon shelves of books to sit at the oak table with Glorfindel. He was not looking forward to this conversation, but he needed to have it.

"Is there something you wish to ask me, Elrond?" Glorfindel asked after about a minute of silence. The candle light flickered in his serious, sea blue eyes, and made his golden hair shine with their light.

"Are you aware that I'm sending Penelope and Kieran to the Edain settlement in the forest surrounding the Blue Mountains?"

"Yes. I believe the hobbits mentioned something about Kieran storming away from the dinner table."

"They do not like the idea."

"I gathered as much. Are you sure they are ready?"

"Estel was riding with my sons when he was their age."

"Estel spoke Common and had more than four years training with a sword and bow."

"They are leaving in a month and I promised them a guide. I'd like you to go with them, be their guide."

Glorfindel closed the book. "Elrond, surely I can be more use in the coming war if I am not babysitting the twins in the west. Do not misunderstand me. I care for them greatly, and will do all I can to prepare them, but all in all it seems a rather useless errand."

"Perhaps," Elrond said, "but it is far from useless to them. Whatever they find there, they need to know regardless of whether or not they want to. I want you to be their guide because you are fond of them. You have taught them. They know you and are comfortable around you. Many elves tolerate them, but you actually care what happens to them. If you refuse, though, I will find another. The elves will do little in this war. It is for men to fight."

Glorfindel sighed. "This is true. I will go with them then. I doubt you'll find anyone else both willing and able."

"Thank you," Elrond said, and rose to leave.

Kieran grudgingly prepared for the journey. He practiced archery very hard with and without Glorfindel. Penny practiced on her own too, but not to the same extent. She'd accepted long ago that her hand-eye coordination would never be as good as Kieran's, nor would her aim. She'd been putting in an extra hour a day for four years now. Four weeks wouldn't make much difference at this point. She worked more on the sword, where she could see the most improvement. She also ensured that she would have shirts and pants for the journey. There was absolutely no way she was spending two months in the wilderness in a dress. Unfortunately that meant sewing her own, or modifying clothes that Kieran had outgrown.

They also went over maps endlessly with Elrond. They knew enough about survival by now that they didn't need to review that, but it was always good to know how they would get to their destination. They'd follow the Bruinin to Tharbad where they would cross the bridge and follow the road to Sarn Ford. At the fork they would turn west. When they reached Sarn Ford they would follow the Baranduin west until it ended. From there they would head due west until they came to and Edain settlement deep within the woods on the edge of the Blue Mountains.

It was a week before Kieran spoke to Elrond, and then only when he had to. He simply avoided the elf-lord when he could, and for the first time she could remember, Penny found herself avoiding Kieran for more than an hour. Trying to deal with him and her own preparations was more trouble than it was worth. Elrond had been teaching her and Kieran about medicinal herbs for some time now, though Penny received more in-depth lessons in this, as it interested her more. Really these lessons had begun when she'd helped treat Aragorn all those years ago, and had increased with her understanding. While she had these lessons, and weaving, Kieran studied elven art and architecture, was well as those of other peoples. The library held a wealth of information on every subject.

Now she was silently putting together a medicine kit under Elrond's worried gaze. His gaze always seemed to be worried these days. She wasn't sure when the laughter had left his eyes, but slowly it had faded, become rarer. He didn't have to worry about this. Penny knew these plants like she knew the back of her hand. She knew them by sight. She knew them by touch. She knew them by smell. And a few she knew by taste too, unfortunately. She sighed softly as she selected another bundle of herbs. Elrond was not her first teacher of herb lore.

"Are you not speaking to me as well?" Elrond asked. Although he said it with a touch of humour, when Penny looked over her shoulder, his eyes were more serious than they should be. His voice had a serious undertone too.

"I am merely thinking, Elrond."

"Are you angry with me?"

She sighed. "Yes. I know I shouldn't be, but I am. You have to understand how difficult this is for us. Kieran will come around. Give him time." She geld up a small bundle of peppermint and inhaled it's soothing fragrance. "Gramma always grew this. She taught me about herbs from the cradle." She set the bundle in her bag.

"Perhaps I should not force you to go," Elrond said softly.

Penny turned to face him and set her bundle on the small table. "No. We have to go."

"Perhaps it would be wiser to wait."

Penny couldn't believe that Elrond was second guessing himself like this. "Wait for what? Until we can speak Common? We don't have time to wait for that. If there is a way to send us home we need to know now. You and Gandalf may be needed to help, and when the war ends I would not keep you from Valinor." She paused. "And if we can't go home, I'd rather know sooner than later. Kieran would rather keep his hope that we will go home whether it is real or not." She forced a smile. "We have Glorfindel. We will be fine."

"You have two weeks."

A week before they left, Penny and Kieran practiced their swordsmanship with Glorfindel, and the hobbits. It was amusing to watch the little folk wield swords that would have been no more than daggers to the others present, and even more amusing to think of them fighting enemies twice their size with them. Glorfindel shouted instructions from a little ways off. Usually along the lines of, "Move your feet," or "Watch your opponent." There were a few calls of, "You're holding the sword wrong," as well, which were always followed by a swift intervention on the teacher's part.

Eventually Glorfindel said, "That's enough for tonight. Kieran, if you would stay for a minute."

Penny carefully avoided her brother's gaze as she put her sword in its sheath and left. She didn't have to look to know that he was glaring at her and the elf. The followed the hobbits to the gardens and sat under a birch.

Kieran glared at his sister as she left the training hall. She probably had something to do with this. He shoved his sword in its sheath more forcefully than he should have.

"You are going to make this journey very unpleasant for your sister and me if you continue to behave in this manner," Glorfindel said.

"So?"

"You are hurting Lord Elrond. Do you realise that?"

"How am I hurting him?"

"With your silence, and your harsh remarks. He only wants what is best for you and Penelope. You have one more week in Rivendell. Perhaps you should make amends."

"I have nothing to be sorry for. He's the one who's sending us away."

"You are hurting him, and you are hurting yourself with this attitude."

"You sound like Penny. She always thinks that if you just accept things as they are it'll be okay. It won't."

"Really?"

"Yeah, even when Dad died. Even when we were brought to Middle Earth she just accepted it."

"Did she have a choice but to accept your father's death? And did she accept that you would remain in Middle Earth forever, or that you were here for a time and you needed to adapt?"

"She's never said that we'll never get home I guess, but she's never looked for a way to get home either. She's far too accepting."

"I've watched both of you since you came here, even before we were introduced. You've both grown up a lot. You seem to have grown happier too. Tell me, have you not been content here? Has Elrond not been good to you? Sharing his home, making time to teach you Sindarin and now the Common Tongue."

"He has," Kieran mumbled, looking down.

"Perhaps you should make your peace with him before you leave then." The elf walked away, leaving Kieran to think about what he'd said. He doubted that it would have been so easy, but the few conversations Kieran had had with his twin in the past few weeks had revolved around this trip, and his attitude.

Kieran hesitated at the door to Elrond's study, then reached up and knocked softly. Penny, Bilbo and now Glorfindel had finally gotten to him. They were right. He was acting like an idiot. 

"Come in," Elrond said.

Kieran opened the door and went inside. The elf-lord stood and turned to face him. Though he was six feet tall, Kieran suddenly felt smaller than the hobbits and very much like a child. The floor became very interesting. Cold grey stone slabs with many-pointed stars at the intersections. Someone had put a lot of work into this.

"What is it, Kieran?" Elrond asked after several minutes.

Kieran opened his mouth to speak, but it suddenly felt dry, and his throat didn't want to work. "I just--I'm sorry," he got out. "The way I've been treating you, and everyone else for the past three weeks has been unacceptable and childish, and I'm sorry. I don't want to part on bad terms."

"Nor do I, Kieran," Elrond said kindly. "Look at me."

Kieran looked up and was surprised to see relief in Elrond's eyes. "I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just. . . I never said goodbye to my father, you know. I was too scared. I couldn't admit that he would die. I just got angry at Mum, the doctors, Penny--anyone who tried to make me face facts. Penny especially because she never questioned what would happen. They were right, though. Now I'd cut my right arm off, I'd give up my sight if I could go back and take those five minutes to say goodbye. After that, after I'd missed out on something that important, it was so easy not to face other problems, like coming to Middle Earth and this journey. I don't want to make the same mistake twice, though."

"You haven't. Really, you haven't been so bad for the past two weeks."

"I have to you."

"I am sorry to send you away now, but time is growing short. This can no longer wait."

"I know."

"It is late. We will talk more in the morning if you wish."

"Thank you. Good night."

"Good night, Kieran." He gave a small smile and Kieran left.

Now that Kieran was on speaking terms with him, Elrond decided it was safe to tell the twins another minor, but important point of their journey. He called them into his study and read in their faces that they were worried. It was their eyes that really gave them away. Though Penelope's were green and Kieran's blue, they both had a grey tinge to them from their Dunedain blood. Whenever they were upset or worried their eyes turned more grey, like a stormy sea or a cloudy day. He'd have to call them in here for something pleasant one of these days, if he got the chance.

"What is it?" Kieran asked. "Is this about our journey?"

Elrond nodded once. "Yes. As you have probably realised, the names of your world are very different than those of Middle Earth. In towns, and with strangers it would be best if you could blend in as much as possible."

"You want us to change our names," Kieran said softly, almost bitterly.

"Not you. Kieran sounds close enough to Edain names that I doubt anyone would notice. Penelope, on the other hand, could draw unwanted attention outside the bounds of Imladris."

"So I need to change my name," Penny said softly, her voice carefully neutral.

"You could just say your name backwards," Kieran offered.

"Epolenep?"

"Well, it sounds. . .um. . .hmm."

"Ridiculous? Thanks. I knew that. Perhaps my middle name, Aislinn, would work."

"Aislinn will do," Elrond said.

"Good. In that case I need to go make sure no one's stolen the pants I've spent the past month making and modifying," Penny said with a slight edge to her voice. Some of the maids here still thought it inappropriate for a lady to run around in pants. She turned and left, muttering something in English. Kieran followed.

The rest of the week was a flurry of activity as the three travelers made their final preparations. Penny had managed to make one shirt, a pair of pants, and had dug up and modified five outfits Kieran had worn the year they came to Imladris. It wasn't fair that at nineteen she was as tall as her brother had been at fifteen, but it came in handy now. She also made sure to pack her flute. She had learned to play the harp over the past four years, and even owned a small lap-harp Kieran had made with the help of one of the elves (okay, so he'd just carved the runes in it--that took a lot of time and effort), but there was no way she was taking that instrument on horseback. Her medicine kit also went in her pack. Glorfindel was very competent in healing, and next to him her skills were nothing, but she still liked having her own supplies on her in case something went wrong.

Kieran packed the necessities of course, but also a small travel desk that held his paper, pencils and pens. It would lay across his lap to write, and looked like nothing but a very thin box, but Penny had woven cloth to trade for it from a wood working elf. He also took a Common-Sindarin dictionary Bilbo had made for the twins. That would come in handy.

Glorfindel actually disappeared for three days, but returned the afternoon before the trip. Where he'd been he refused to tell the twins.

Penny sat in the Hall of Fire as close to the fire place as possible. She was on the floor, cross legged, lap harp resting on her knees. Her fingers hovered just above the strings, not wanting to disturb the peace of the crackling fire and the soft scratching of pencil against paper from where Kieran sat. The only song that came to mind was Gramma's lullaby, and she didn't really want to play that now. She had a feeling it had started all this the night she'd first sung it, four years ago now. 

"Just play already," Kieran said.

"You won't like the song," Penny warned. No one else was here. They'd been left mostly alone for the better part of two days now, though Bilbo had said his farewells to them after supper.

"I don't care what song it is. I know what song it is and it's still Gramma's Lullaby."

Penny nodded, her fingers going to the harp as if drawn by a magnet. She wove harmonies around the melody, beautiful but simple, disguising the basic tune. Kieran hummed along as he drew. Some how--probably counting the bars if she knew him--he knew when to come in with words on the second verse, only he started with the words to the first verse.

He had a nice voice, Penny realised. She hadn't heard him sing since the Christmas before Dad died, and then only with the family. It wasn't an amazing voice, by any stretch, but it was a good, solid tenor.

She joined in on the second verse, adding a high, clear descant to the haunting melody. The song may be a lullaby, but it was written in a-minor with only two bars per verse in the tonic major.

As the last chord faded, Kieran put down his pencil and Penny set the harp on the floor softly. 

"It's hard to believe we've been hearing Common Speech since we were born," Kieran said. "Think they still sing that in the Blue Mountains?"

"I'm sure they do. I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow. It's a good thing Glorfindel's coming. I don't want to go."

"Neither do I."

"The whole place knows that, but at least you can handle a bow and a sword. You can mount a horse without a leg up."

"You are. . .good enough with a bow, and you can handle a sword. You should pick up on the language really fast now."

"There is that."

"This isn't about archery or mounting a horse, is it?"

Penny shook her head. "No. It's about being in the wilds for the War of the Ring. It's November twenty third, and on Christmas day the Fellowship will leave Rivendell. I can tell you the day Baradur falls in the book. Lorien will be attacked three times. Did you know that? And the west of Middle Earth is hardly mentioned. There are orcs out there, and if we run into a band, one elf and two kids are not going to make much difference."

"We're not kids."

"Tell that to the elves." She sighed. "It's stupid, but even knowing how the story ends, now that it's not a story, I'm afraid."

"Me too. I'm really worried about meeting the people of the Blue Mountains. Do you think Gramma and Grampa really come from there?"

"Where on Earth could they have learned that song?" Penny asked in all seriousness.

"No where on Earth, but plenty of places on Arda. I wonder what our family here will think of us."

"The door opened and Elrond stepped in. "Penny, Kieran, bed time."

"We're nineteen," Kieran protested. "We don't need a bed time."

"You leave at dawn. You do realise that you need to get up about an hour earlier?"

"Yeah," Kieran said. "Who's idea was that?"

"Glorfindel's" Penny said.

They left, and on the way to their rooms Penny started singing the lullaby again, only this time with different words in English.

"Now the Shadow Rises in the East.

Darkness soon will cover every land

The king will rise to claim his throne

But he will not the Shadow slay.

The Shadow sleeps no longer now

And all free people fear

Upon strange beds we lay our heads

Your hands can't dry our tears.

Still, light will come with morning's dawn,

The star of hope shines clear.

Though you can't reach me with your arms,

We'll hold each other in our hearts

Till our worlds meet again."

It was still dark when Elrond woke Kieran and Penny, both muttering under their breath in English about getting up at this ungodly hour. They dressed and made their way from their rooms to the dining hall where Glorfindel was already eating breakfast. He was much too awake for this hour. Tea sweetened with honey was shoved at the twins, then bread, jam and fruit. They ate, and the sugar woke them fairly quickly.

After the meal they checked their packs, making sure nothing had been forgotten, and Penny pulled her hair into a braid. When all the preparations were made they went out to the stables to ready the horses. They waited in the hall of the massive building while stable hands brought out the great white horse called Asfaloth, a smaller silver stallion, and a blue roan mare with a white star on her forehead not much bigger than a large pony. They already bore saddles and bridals. All that remained was to introduce the second and third horses to their riders and fix the packs to them.

Elrond had come in and handled the introductions. "These are your horses," he said. "They are a gift for your journey. The silver horse, Brethil, is yours, Kieran. He is an Elven horse. I regret that the mare is not, but all the elven horses are too large for you, Penelope. She's a good horse, though, and will bear you to the Blue Mountains if you are kind to her."

"What's her name?" Penny asked, stroking the mare's star. Kieran was behaving in much the same manner with Brethil. Both teens were enchanted with their animals.

"That is for you to decide," Elrond said.

"Oh." She considered for a moment. "Elloth."

"Star Flower. That is a good name for her," Glorfindel said.

"These horses are your responsibility," Elrond told the twins. "You have enough training that you can care for these horses without Glorfindel's help. And remember to call Penelope Aislinn with any strangers you or in any towns you stop at."

"We will try to avoid any towns and settlements," Glorfindel said.

There was a mad scrambling of feet and four hobbits appeared at the door, still in their night clothes.

"Wait!" Pippin called. "We want to say goodbye too!"

Elrond looked almost amused. "Is it possible to keep anything from you four?"

"This is hardly secret," Pippin said, "though we didn't know they were leaving this early."

"We just want to say goodbye," Frodo said, "since we don't know what'll happen now. They might be sent back to their home, and we don't know how our. . . journey will end. We've eaten with them for the past month, and trained with them. So, Penny, Kieran, I hope your trip is safe and you can go home. So does Bilbo, only I hadn't the heart to wake him."

"He said goodbye last night, Frodo," Kieran said. "Good luck with your quest. Goodbye." He mounted his horse.

Penny crouched down to get on eye level with the hobbits. "Elrond, you won't have to translate." She changed languages and spoke in her halting Common. "Goodbye, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin. Good luck. Be safe. Say to Aragorn from me goodbye."

"We will," Frodo said.

She stood and mounted Elloth. Glorfindel led them out of the stables and along the road of Imladris while the hobbits all called, "Goodbye," after them. The sky was changing, the stars beginning to fade, and to the east, through the trees, the first rays of light were peaking over the horizon.

"Just for the record," Kieran said in English, "this is not dawn."

"It's twilight," Penny offered.

"Twilight is not dawn. If twilight were dawn it would be called dawn and I would not know both words in Sindarin."

"Let's just hope he remembers we're Edain and need to sleep at night."

"Why are you so sleepy? You're the morning person."

"It could be argued that this is not morning."

"True."

They rode in silence for a time before they came to the gates of Imladris and passed through them. Glorfindel kept his head forward, but the twins glanced back at what had been their safe haven for four years. There was no turning back now.

Author's note. If you don't have a problem understanding the difference between being functional in a language and being fluent, you don't have to read this, but I thought I'd explain. Being fluent in a language means you can speak it like you would your first language. In fact, most people are only ever truly fluent in their first language. Someone who's fluent in a language will have an intimate knowledge of the language, and will get the humour, puns, understand idioms and clichés, and can think in that language for an extended period of time. If a person is functional in a language it basically means that they could be stuck in a place where that is the only language spoken and get by without a translator. They could function. However, they would probably miss humour, puns, clichés, and idioms and would most likely translate back and forth in their head. They may be able to think in that language for short periods or certain phrases, depending on how functional they are, but not for extended periods.

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Please review. Constructive criticism is more than welcome. I can't fix problems if I don't know they're there. Questions are also welcome. I will do my best to answer them.


	5. The Journey

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Thanks for all the reviews! Really you have no idea what positive feedback and constructive criticism mean to me. My Writer's Craft teacher is less than generous when it comes to marks, tends to miss the point and offers criticism that is less than helpful. So, you're reviews are really, really appreciated, and I take all criticism to heart. Thank you.

About the time jump. For the plot I want this story to have, it needed to happen. I do promise, however, to do a companion to this story once it's done that covers the missing four years, more of the twins adjustments, and their relationships with Elrond and a few other characters.

About Common Speech and English being similar. There're not. In Middle Earth, the Common Tongue is actually a language called Westron. It is not related to English as far as I can tell. The books, all the conversations in them, even a few of the character names have all been translated into English from Westron for our benefit. An example of this is the word for Rivendell. The Elvish is Imladris, the Westron word is Karningul, and the English translation is Rivendell. The whole matter is explained in Appendix F following The Return of the King, and Tolkien does a much better job of it than I can if there is any remaining confusion.

One more quick language note. _Italics_ indicate that that word is in a language different than that of the rest of the sentence. Usually this would occur when the twins are speaking Sindarin or Common and run into a word they don't know, and therefore change language momentarily. If they're speaking Sindarin, the word is in English. If the rest of the sentence is Common the italicised word is Sindarin.

Additional disclaimer: Something From Nothing is a book by Phoebe Gilman, and is adapted from a Jewish folktale. It's not mine. All previous disclaimers stand.

As the sun rose on the first day of travel, Penny and Kieran slowly started to look around at their surroundings. By the time they were really awake they were far enough from Imladris that their surroundings were unfamiliar. The trees were bare for the winter and the sun was yellow and cold in the sky. When it was light enough to see the path easily, Glorfindel nudged Asfaloth into a trot and the twins followed suit. Elloth's trot wasn't quite as smooth as that of the elven horses, and Penny posted to compensate. The continuous up and down motion didn't bother her and made the ride smoother.

Around noon they stopped to rest their horses and eat. Glorfindel brought out bread, dried fruit and cheese. The horses were picketed near by, eating oats laid out for them by the twins and Glorfindel. As soon as the meal was finished they moved on. Glorfindel set an easy pace for the rest of the day. They didn't stop until dusk.

Glorfindel pitched his tent, and let the twins pitch theirs. Between the two of them they managed.

"Shouldn't you be good at this?" Penny asked, automatically speaking Sindarin in the presence of an elf. "You did want to be an _architect_ back home."

"Yeah. They design buildings. They don't build them."

"Still. We learned how to do this. We should be able to pull it off."

They struggled with the poles for a few minutes while Glorfindel watched. Once those were in place it was a simple matter to set the material over it and set their bed roles inside. Glorfindel caught a couple of fish, which the Penny cleaned and gutted while Kieran built the fire. Glorfindel showed them a way to cook fish over the fire using herbs found in the forest for flavouring. It was good, and after a day of riding, the food disappeared quickly. After supper they cleaned up and went to bed. Glorfindel kept watch. The twins weren't used to long journeys and needed their sleep.

The first week of travel was fairly uneventful. They were careful to avoid any orc patrols in the region, but so close to Rivendell, the frequent hunts of Elladan and Elrohir made that problem minimal. Over the first few days, Glorfindel set a pace which was fine for an elf, but hard for edain. He paid attention to the horses' need to rest, which was a blessing for the twins., and slowly he adjusted the pace for them.

A typical day was to wake to at Tindome, the predawn twilight. One of them would make breakfast, one would check the water supply and refill the water skins as needed, and one would do whatever dishes there were. The jobs rotated daily. After the meal they would care for the horses and break camp. Generally they alternated between a walk and a trot for the day, though occasionally they would break into a canter. As they rode Glorfindel would talk to them, pointing out things in Common and teaching them as best he could on horseback. They stopped once at noon, then went until dusk before stopping again to make camp. At night the jobs were pretty much the same as the morning, except whoever did water also dug the latrine and supper duty may involve hunting, in Glorfindel's case, or fishing, which the twins usually opted for, and whoever did dishes was also in charge of the fire. The horses were always cared for first, though, and picketed in a safe place.

After the dishes were done, before they went to bed, Glorfindel would tell tales and sing songs of the First and Second Ages of the world. Kieran would sketch or mark their journey on a map and Penny played flute between stories.

In the second week they had to start avoiding orc patrols heading east, and watch carefully for signs of them while they rode. They stayed close to the river and in the sunlight as much as possible. The days were growing shorter now, and the terrain became more open. The windswept fields were beautiful, but cold with no trees for protection. They also had the potential to be dangerous at night as shelter was almost impossible to find. It was easier to see danger from afar, though, which was a mixed blessing as if it was easier for them to see, it was also easier to be seen.

The fire had been built and Glorfindel had gone to check for any sign of orcs again. He would stand watch for the night, being able to sleep on Asfaloth without falling off as needed. For once Kieran wasn't sketching, but rather watching the dancing flames and the emmerging stars. It was cold. The twins could see their breath in the frosty air and sat comfortably with a warm blanket around their shoulders. The river splashed and gurgled in the background.

Softly Penny sang,

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"Fire's burning, fire's burning.

Draw nearer, draw nearer.

In the glowing, in the glowing.

Come sing and be merry."

The second time around, Kieran started as she began the second line, turning it into a cannon. They sung the round a few more times before letting it fade. The moved on to other songs, and without the elf it felt almost like a camping trip in Algonquin Park back home.

They stopped when the elf returned to sit by the fire.

"I have spent three weeks singing songs of Middle Earth," Glorfindel said, "but in four years I have never asked to hear any songs from your home."

"You wouldn't understand them," Kieran pointed out.

"Stories can be translated," Glorfindel said, "and songs are pleasant to listen to."

"Music is its own language," Penny said.

Kieran held up his hands. "I'm not singing."

"Then we will tell a story. Let me think. Oh--Something From Nothing. It's a folk tale." She re-told the familiar story, with Kieran interrupting to describe what the land and houses would have looked like in vivid detail, to the point of doing a quick sketch of one of the pictures from the book back home. Before long the two were interrupting each other as each remembered details the other forgot and they embellished the tale based on the pictures they remembered. The book had been a favourite in the Ryan household for many years. As they spoke their accents became thick in their enthusiasm, and they lapsed occasionally into English before realizing their mistake and backing up to translate. Glorfindel smiled at the story of how Joseph's blanket evolved to a coat, a vest, a tie, a handkerchief, a button, then got lost and the young boy learned that even his grandfather could not make something from nothing, but Joseph could make a wonderful story. He understood them better, hearing tales from their childhood, from their land. It was nice to see them so happy, stumbling over words they had learned only recently, and trying to explain words they hadn't so he could guess and fill them in.

"That's a wonderful story," Glorfindel said when the twins had finished. "I would like to hear more stories from your home."

"Some day," Penny agreed.

"Translating's hard work," Kieran said. "Perhaps you could tell us a story now."

"A short one. Then bed."

"Of course."

From then on the campfires had one story from Earth, and one from Arda every night.

The forest by the river was unusually quiet today. The wind still blew, rattling a few stubborn leaves that hadn't fallen in the autumn. It was hard to pinpoint what was wrong, as the forest was always quiet in the winter, and a fresh blanket of snow had fallen during the night erasing any tracks from the previous day. Still, there were always a few birds that stayed the winter and sang on all but the coldest days. There were none, and the temperature was not so cold that they should be hiding. The horses were uneasy as well. Glorfindel and the twins tread carefully in single file, saying nothing.

A twig snap was all the warning they got before they were surrounded, if one could call it surrounded, by five men armed with worn bows and arrows. The horses tried to rear, but a quick word from Glorfindel stopped them, though they still neighed and tossed their heads, stepping in place nervously. The elf horses calmed down fairly quickly, but Elloth refused to stand still, shifting her weight constantly, wanting to bolt so Penny had to use most of her energy to keep her in place. Kieran and Glorfindel were able to whip out their bows and put arrows to them almost immediately.

"Easy, Elloth. It's okay," Penny murmured in English. Slowly she let go of the reins and drew her own bow, aiming for the shoulder of the man nearest her.

"I suggest you leave," Glorfindel told the bandits calmly in Westron.

"We outnumber you," one of the men, larger than the others with a scruffy brown beard, said.

"And I have several thousand years of experience in archery."

"Can't shoot five at once."

"I don't need to." He continued speaking calmly, projecting an air of authority, but though Penny could pick out several words, they weren't enough for any real understanding beyond the fact that he was stalling.

Kieran looked scared, but his arrow was trained on the shoulder of the bandit nearest him, unwavering with the slight movements of his horse. As Glorfindel spoke, Kieran became more confident, and the fear on his face gave way to a sort of determination and anger. Penny herself was afraid, but she forced herself to push her fear aside so she could focus on her horse, bow, and the men surrounding them. She needed to act calm, or Elloth would bolt.

The man Glorfindel was speaking to suddenly drew back the string of his bow as if to shoot and quick as lightening the elf's arrow was embedded deep in the man's shoulder. With a yell, the others made to shoot their weapons, but only one got the chance as Glorfindel shot a second robber without thinking and the twins loosed their arrows. Kieran hit his mark--the shoulder--but Penny, anticipating problems from Elloth as the horse danced away from a flying arrow, tried to compensate and ended up embedding an arrow in the flesh below her assailant's knee. He dropped his bow, rather than shoot, and his arrow went wild, scaring Elloth into a rear that dumped Penny on the ground. Fortunately the two feet of snow was soft so it didn't hurt much, and she quickly stood to grab Elloth's reins and draw her sword, which she pointed at the bandit she'd felled. Kieran and Glorfindel each had their bows ready and trained on one of the other four, ready to change their aim at a moment's notice. An arrow stuck out of Glorfindel's left arm a little below the shoulder.

"Leave," Glorfindel said simply.

The robbers hesitated and scrambled away.

"Are you hurt?" the elf asked.

"No," the twins answered simultaneously.

Kieran looked a little sceptical.

"For the record, I don't consider minor bruises hurt," Penny told them. "The arrow Glorfindel just ripped from his arm, I consider hurt." She handed Elloth to Kieran and dug her medicine kit out of the saddle bag. They didn't have time to stop. It obviously wasn't safe, but the wound should be bandaged at least.

"I'm fine," Glorfindel said as she approached.

"You're bleeding," Penny corrected. "Let me bandage it, at least."

"We should move."

"I'm not going anywhere until you get off your high horse and let me see that arm."

Kieran grinned, but idioms and puns rarely translate well, and this one was lost on Glorfindel.

"My horse is not that tall," Glorfindel said.

Kieran snickered and Penny disguised a laugh with a cough. "It's a joke, Glorfindel. Just get down here." Her voice trembled with barely contained laughter.

The elf obeyed and Penny examined the wound carefully. It looked clean. No obvious dirt or grit was in it, anyhow. Before leaving Rivendell, Penny had steeped athelas in water for the journey. Now she dug out a vial of the solution and soaked a small cloth square in it. She bound it to the arm, reasoning that it should act against any poison that might be on the arrow. She couldn't call someone back from the Shadows, but the herb had healing power on its own.

"There. That wasn't so bad, was it?" Penny asked as she pulled the sleeve of Glorfindel's shirt back down.

"Athelas water?"

She shrugged. "Always clean a wound."

"It was not poisoned."

"I'm being careful. In my language we call it _disinfecting_ so poison cannot enter the wound later." She wasn't about to try to explain bacterial infection to an elf.

"Can we go? Kieran called from atop Brethil.

"Yes," Glorfindel said, mounting Asfaloth.

Penny took Elloth back and mounted her, and they continued on their way.

As the weeks passed and the nights lengthened, the days grew colder. Even into early December the temperature hovered around freezing during the day, but at night dipped to around ten below at times. About half way through December the first flurries of snow grew into heavy snow falls. When the snow got too deep or the path too icy, Glorfindel and the twins dismounted and led the horses over the uneven terrain. As if slogging through knee deep snow on a regular basis wasn't bad enough, Glorfindel walked over the snow, leaving not even a footprint to show his passing. As an elf, he sometimes didn't recognise the difference between snow covered hills and snow drifts until Penny and Kieran were waist deep. At night Penny and Kieran huddled beneath several blankets around the fire while Glorfindel kept watch.

"Stupid elf," Kieran muttered one night in English. "Doesn't get cold, doesn't sink so he leads us into snow drifts where we sink waist deep, won't let us stop in towns."

"The one we passed today is in the middle of an epidemic," Penny pointed out. "From what he said it sounds like influenza."

"If I could spend one night in a warm bed, I'd take the flu for a few days."

"Glorfindel said something about high mortality rates. I doubt it'll be pandemic here, but it sounds like the flu of 1917 on Earth. I'm with you about the cold, though." She pulled the blanket closer.

"Do you think it's not an accident? This flu?"

"Beats me. I can't see the point of killing a small, out of the way town, and I don't think it's that deadly. If we run into a bunch of towns where people are dropping like flies. . . Even then, these things happen."

"I know. We can't do anything about it. I guess a lot of people won't be very trusting anyhow," Kieran said. "Maybe avoiding towns is a good thing."

"I know it's safer, but it's still cold."

Glorfindel added another branch to the fire. "It's time to practice Common"

The twins protested half heartedly. "We'd rather hear a story," Kieran said in Sindarin.

"Or a song," Penny added. They did this every night. It never worked. As if having things of interest pointed out in Common Speech wasn't enough.

"I'll tell you a story in Common," Glorfindel said. "One you know," he added, seeing their panic.

"Which one?" Kieran asked suspiciously.

"The one Penny tells every year on this night about the baby born in a stable."

"By the Valar, it's Christmas?" Kieran asked.

"Apparently, Mr. I-don't-need-a-calendar-to-keep-track-of-the-days," Penny said wryly.

"Well, you didn't realise either," Kieran said defensively.

"I was letting you keep track. Wait a minute. Glorfindel, why were you keeping track of our holidays?"

"Because I have been keeping track of the date since we left Imladris. It is December 24, and I have observed that the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December are still important to you, and that every year you tell the same story to Elrond, and anyone else who asks or listens."

"It's important in our family," Penny said. "The one on Earth, at least." Even after four years and adopting the general beliefs held in Middle Earth it felt strange not to acknowledge Christmas. It was also one of the hardest times of the year, when they remembered it, and somehow forgetting this year made it worse. Explaining the holiday had been nearly impossible the first year, but the next year the twins had managed a mostly coherent explanation to Elrond. Now they disguised their celebrations with the larger celebrations surrounding Yule and the Winter Solstice. Except this year, of course.

"Shall I begin?" Glorfindel asked. The twins nodded, so he began on a simplified version of the already simplified translation into Sindarin. Penny and Kieran didn't understand most of it, but they caught several words and used logic and Glorfindel's gestures to fill in the rest.

"Thank you," Penny said when he was finished.

"Thank you," Kieran echoed. "I guess it's our turn."

"End the lesson there?" the elf asked in jest.

"Well we can't sing Christmas songs in Common. We need to sing them in English."

"All right, but only because--"

"Thank you."

They started on the German tune to Away In A Manger, and sang a few more songs after that, Penny adding a descant or harmony where she could.

In January they came to fields not covered in snow, but frozen all the same. It was still cold, but they no longer had to dry out at day's end and Glorfindel assured them that their goal was only a month away. When he announced this, the twins looked at each other.

"Only a month," they muttered simultaneously, and sarcastically, in English.

"I may not understand English, but I can guess what you said," Glorfindel told them.

They came to a small town where Glorfindel allowed them to restock. The twins had never been in a Middle Earth town before and looked around at the narrow streets. The signs made no sense, as they had not read in Common in some time and many of the words would be unfamiliar even if they had more than a limited command of the written version of Westron, but the strange writing didn't seem to bother Glorfindel. He led them through the crowds to a meat shop, where they bought a small ham, a bakery, where they bought a loaf of fresh bread and, as a treat, some buns stuffed with dried fruit and glazed with honey, and last, to a more general store where they replenished their supply of dried fruit. Glorfindel wouldn't let them stay the night, but it was nice to see humans again, even if they were impossible to understand and Glorfindel kept his hood up the whole time. People spoke to Penny and Kieran a few times, but received only shrugs. When they asked Glorfindel, he said that they were simple, and understood little language. Then people shook their heads sadly and walked away.

While Glorfindel was buying the fruit, Kieran tapped Penny's shoulder and indicated that they should slip away. Against her better judgement, Penny agreed and followed him into the street. Glorfindel had given them leave to look around without him as long as they stayed in the same store, so slipping away was fairly easy.

Outside, Kieran grinned. "You'd think we were children the way he behaves."

"I know," Penny agreed. "I think it has something to do with the language barrier, but I think I can communicate on my own by now. It's not like we started lessons yesterday."

"No kidding. We're nineteen. We can take a walk by ourselves."

"Just remember, my name's Aislinn here."

"Sure thing, _Aislinn_. Let's go."

They poked their heads into several shops before finding a carpenter shop and going in. in addition to furniture, wooden bowls, flutes and figurines decorated the shelves. The twins looked around while the shop keeper, a man with greying hair, watched. The figures of animals and people were beautiful and simple.

"Kieran, Aislinn," Glorfindel said behind them. "Come with me." He spoke in Common, but it was a phrase they understood well.

They didn't bother protesting. Instead they turned, barely masking their grins, and followed him out of the shop. They left town immediately.

"No more stops," Glorfindel said as they rode.

"That's a little unreasonable, don't you think?" Penny asked.

"Yes. The horses need to rest," Kieran said. "And we can't sleep on moving animals."

"Don't help me, Kieran."

"No more stops in towns," Glorfindel clarified.

"Aw, come on," Kieran protested.

"I cannot trust you. You behaved like children, wandering off."

"We behaved like adults wanting a little freedom. You're the one who's treating us like children. We are not."

"Do you not understand, Kieran son of John son of Albion of the Blue Mountains, that you cannot wander because you cannot speak Westron."

"Westron?"

"Common," Penny supplied, "and we can speak some. We've been learning for--what?--seven months now? We like being able to do things for ourselves."

"Seven months is far from fluent, Penelope," Glorfindel said. "You cannot afford to draw attention to yourselves until we know how and why you came here."

Kieran opened his mouth, but Penny beat him to it. "Just try to understand that we've spent the past four years being protected, mostly in one place until two months ago. It's nice to see other Edain, and it's nice not to be watched. We're nineteen. We're not exactly children."

"Nineteen is still very young."

"Young for a ten thousand year old elf. Not so young for Edain who only live perhaps seventy years. By the laws of our homeland we were adult last year."

"I'm not ten thousand. Aragorn listened to his elders when he was your age."

Penny and Kieran gave a short laugh. "Not according to Elrond," Kieran said. "Besides, Aragorn was also doing things on his own at our age."

"He was with Elladan and Elrohir," Glorfindel stated, "and he spoke the Common Speech fluently, and this conversation is over. No more stops. We'll be there in three weeks."

The next three weeks were uneventful. Glorfindel drilled them in Common whenever he could, and reviews of the alphabet and writing replaced songs and stories at night. Both twins came down with slight colds three days after visiting the town, but other than easing the pace a little, and drinking peppermint tea every night, they didn't have to make any adjustments and the problem healed itself in about a week. 

They passed into the forest about a week after the last traces of the colds had faded. They were careful, and watched for streams now, having left the river behind them. There was no hurry, so they kept to a walk, not wanting to risk injury to the horses.

The town of Clearwater, when they finally came to it, was nestled in a clearing at the base of the mountains, surrounded by small farms. Once inside the walls, the travellers were greeted by wooden houses and shops no more than two stories high lining the main roads. The streets were, if not crowded, then busy as people wandered from ship to shop. They had hair varying degrees of brown, ranging form almost blond to indistinguishable from black at a distance. All the men seemed to have shoulder length hair while the women's was considerably longer and loose, which was the same as most Edain of Middle Earth. The clothing was simple, mostly brown, beige or dark colours with cloaks for warmth.

The elf, young man with not quite shoulder length hair, and young woman dressed as a man drew many stares as they made their way to the inn. At the centre of the town was a large square lined by shops and open air stands full of supplies and handicrafts. Apparently they had come on market day. The inn was easy to find at the far end of the square; the Laughing Lark.

The inside was dark, even in the day, though not crowded, as last night's crowd had left and tonight's crowd had not yet arrived. Still, there were perhaps a dozen people throughout the common room eating and drinking.

The twins followed Glorfindel to the counter where the inn keeper sat counting money. He was a heavy set man, well muscled, with dark hair and blue-grey eyes.

"I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark ally," Kieran muttered in English.

Glorfindel made a slight motion for them to be quiet as Penny gave a slight nod of agreement.

"Exuse me," Glorfindel said. "We're looking for Alden son of Alcan. Do you know where we could find him?"

With his hood up, the inn keeper couldn't see that he was an elf. "I know, but I'm not in the habit of telling strangers where my friends live."

"This man and woman are his great-nephew and niece," Glorfindel said.

"How do I know you speak the truth?"

"You must take me on my word, but I know that Alden's brother vanished about sixty years ago."

"Sixty two. What was his name?"

"Albion son of Alcan," Penny said.

"And the name of his sister, who vanished with him?"

"Vanished?" Penny asked Glorfindel, and he repeated the word in Sindarin. She nodded her understanding.

"He vanished with Ailyn daughter of Aimel. She is his wife," Penny said. "We are their grandchildren.

"You understand that?" Kieran asked softly in English.

"Don't you?" Penny asked in the same language.

"Bits and pieces."

"Same here. Enough to give a name or two."

"Well, you look like the folk around here," the inn keeper said slowly. "My name's Belor. Alden owns the bakery. You'll find him there."

"Thank you," Glorfindel said and led the twins back into the streets. Quickly he summarised the conversation in Sindarin so they could catch anything they missed, and they followed the scent of baking bread to the north side of the square.

Once at the door of the bakery, Glorfindel lowered his hood and led them in. At the counter an old man, perhaps in his late seventies, took orders from the four patrons lined up, handed them various types of bread, and accepted payment. Cold sunlight streamed in through the single window offering enough illumination to see by. The place smelled of flour, yeast, and baked goods. Various breads, pastries, cakes, buns and cookies were displayed on shelves behind the counters. The shop was small, and would probably hold no more than a dozen people total, but there was evidence of a back room, from where the smell of baking bread wafted in from.

"What can I do for you?" the man asked Glorfindel eventually.

"Are you Alden son of Alcan?" Glorfindel asked.

"I am."

"Then we need to speak to you. I've brought these youngsters from Imladris. They are Albion's grandchildren."

Penny and Kieran moved slightly closer together and held hands loosely. They were concentrating very hard on understanding this conversation--getting familiar words, filling in the blanks. Penny hated this feeling of ignorance and helplessness, and knew that Kieran did as well.

Alden's eyes widened in shock. "How can this be? Albion disappeared sixty years ago."

"He and his wife went. . ." and Penny lost the conversation. Glorfindel seemed to explain the situation in great detail, but the twins could only grasp a handful of words and phrases to the effect of, "They lived in Rivendell," and, "They speak little Common, but know Sindarin." The elf was no longer going out of his way to use short sentences using words mainly in their limited vocabulary. Alden said something about them looking like the people of Clearwater.

"This could be interesting," Kieran muttered in English. "I don't think he believes us." He stated the obvious out of a simple need to understand something in the room and feel like he was doing something.

Penny nodded. She understood the feeling well. "Why an elf would lie about such things. . . How can we prove that Glorfindel's telling the truth?"

"We can't."

Okay, this chapter's a little short, and it took a little longer than I would have liked. It's mostly because of school. Summatives, you know, and I'd really really like to graduate this year. I'm not sure how good this is. I've never really written any action scenes before, and I don't think this is a particularly strong chapter to begin with, but the next one should be better.

Please review. I like constructive criticism.


	6. The Necklace

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Okay, I know it's been a month. Sorry. I thought I could get this done before summative season, but then I got hit by eight of them, so it's not that I haven't been writing these past several weeks. It's that I haven't been writing for fun these past several weeks, and believe me, I'd rather have been writing this story than essays. This'll probably wrap itself up in another one or two chapters.

Celeblas Slentari Manwe: I did write that poem Penny's been singing. I'm glad you like it. Even my writer's craft teacher liked it.

Disclaimer: The song surrounding this chapter is not mine. It's _In Dreams_ by Fran Walsh and Howard Shore. All previous disclaimers stand.

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When the cold of winter comes

Starless night will cover day

In the veiling of the sun

We will walk in bitter rain

But in dreams

I can hear your name

And in dreams

We will meet again.

After nearly half an hour of Glorfindel arguing with Alden, Kieran threw his hands in the air. "Glorfindel, how do you say 'why' in Common?"

Glorfindel gave the translation and Kieran nodded.

"Why you think we not tell truth?" Kieran asked in Common. "Why should we lie to you? We want home to go. We want you to speak to we what you of our grandparents know."

Alden shook his head and said something to Glorfindel.

The elf nodded and turned to the twins. "We should get a room at the inn."

"We can't give up," Kieran protested.

"Kieran--"

"We didn't spend three months wading through snow so our great-uncle could reject us."

"If someone turned up on your doorstep claiming what we are, what would you say?" He paused for a moment while Kieran looked down. "We should get a room before they are all taken. We'll try Ailyn's family tomorrow."

"And you think they'll believe us?"

"We need to think of a way to prove what we say."

"How?" Penny asked. "We have names and a song we could have learned anywhere in Middle Earth."

"Then think." He walked to the door and held it open for them. "We will try again. Let's go."

The twins followed Glorfindel back to the inn, dejected. Three months journey simply to be dismissed without a second thought. The innkeeper gave them a room with three beds and space in the stable for their horses.

Instead of going to the common room for supper, the travellers ate from their own supplies in the silence of their room, glad to be away from the noise and crowd. They still had some smoked ham, lembas and dried fruit, which made a decent meal. None of them wanted to face the rest of the town quite yet.

"Is there no way to prove your kinship to Alden?" Glorfindel asked when they'd finished eating.

"A _DNA_ test, but I don't think you have those here," Kieran said sarcastically.

"DNA?" Glorfindel asked, repeating the foreign word carefully.

"Never mind," Penny sighed. "All we have is our grandmother's lullaby, but we could have learned that anywhere. It's not exactly popular, but it's familiar to people who have traveled, so. . ."

"If you can't prove your relation in two weeks, we'll return to Imladris."

"Well, sorry we didn't ask Gramma and Grampa how on Arda to prove we're their grandchildren before taking a walk. We didn't plan on coming here."

Glorfindel nodded slowly. "Pictures?"

Kieran thought for a moment, but shook his head. "No. Not unless they look a lot like they did at twenty, now that they're eighty."

"Try," Glorfindel ordered. "Is there something they always wore, or something they have that may be from Middle Earth?"

Penny and Kieran thought back to four years ago when they'd last seen their grandparents, and began thinking out loud in English. Kieran took out his sketch book and pencil to draw as they thought. It wasn't hard. Gramma and Grampa had looked mostly the same for years, unchanging except for a few new wrinkles and a slow, steady greying of their hair.

"Gramma had silver hair tied back in a bun," Penny said slowly.

"You look a lot like her," Kieran observed. "Face me. If I copy your basic face shape and add to my own memory, that should be a start."

Penny obediently turned to face him. "She always wore that necklace. I don't think she ever took it off. Tiny blue, grey, green and copper stones with that larger one at the centre."

"Held together by that strip of leather," Kieran added. "That big stone had copper in it too."

"I remember. I asked her about it once, when I was small." In her mind's eye she could see her own small hand stroking the polished stone with swirls of blue, grey, green, and tiny copper veins. "I asked her where she got it. She said it was a family heirloom--that I'd get it when I married."

"I guess you won't now, but that does mean it came from here." Kieran put away the picture of his grandmother, little more than an outline, and on a fresh piece of paper began to sketch the necklace. "I should also draw their wedding rings, even if they were plain gold. They had etchings in them of runes and leaves and stars."

"Yeah. Do you remember them?"

"I think so. I spent hours studying them. I know those rings like you know the lullaby." 

Kieran stared at the paper as he worked, brow furrowed, as if he expected the images to appear in perfect likeness by sheer force of will. Penny just watched. She loved watching her brother draw. He seemed to be able to call forth images from paper and graphite with his hands, as if by magic.

"Tell me about the necklace," Kieran said.

"You probably remember better than I do."

"I know, but it helps to hear about it. You don't have to describe it. Just tell me about it. I know you asked her about its history. What else do you know about it?"

Penny sighed and closed her eyes as she tried to remember. "It was passed down from mother to daughter for five generations, always to the oldest daughter on her wedding day. Gramma's great-great-great-grandmother chose the colours for the beads, found the stones, polished them, on her own. Can you imagine searching these woods for all those stones? Blue for the sky, grey for the sea, green for the forest, and copper for fire. I guess the colour reminded her, or the fact that copper comes from in the earth. I don't know. Interesting, isn't it? Her home, and the elven rings. I wonder if she knew. Now I know why Gramma never talked about her home much. Probably afraid that she'd give away the secret. Do you think they'll believe us when they see the picture?"

"I hope so," Kieran said. "They should believe your story, if nothing else. I can't imagine anyone outside the family knowing it, and I can't imagine another necklace looking like this one, if I can get it right."

"You will," Penny said, opening her eyes to study the image taking shape beneath the pencil. Kieran drew confidently, each stroke exactly where it should be, exactly as Penny remembered it. When he'd finally finished, using shading to bring out the swirls of colour, Penny almost thought she could reach out and pick the necklace off the page. Even in the black and white sketch she saw the colours she knew so well. How many times had she fingered those stones as Gramma told her a story, or held her after a nightmare, or bandaged a scraped knee?

"It's beautiful," Glorfindel said softly.

"Hopefully it's the proof we need," Kieran said.

"I don't think you need to draw the rings," Penny said. "If this isn't enough, I doubt they will be. Do the runes, though. If we can read them, they might come in handy if we need an extra bit of proof."

Kieran nodded and quickly sketched the inscription in runes that the twins now recognised as Sindarin. "Looks like our grandparents went to school," Kieran said.

"Let's wait to see what they say before deciding that," Penny said.

Glorfindel smiled. "Many Dunedain know some Elvish. I would not be surprised if they did."

The runes drawn, Kieran held them up so his sister could see them and read, "May our love endure beyond the end of days. Both of them say that."

Penny nodded. "And all that time I thought they were Gaelic."

Kieran laughed.

It wasn't long before they went to bed.

_Penny stood in a forest somewhere. She wasn't sure where, only that it was late winter. Perhaps it was the woods surrounding the town. She looked beside her and found Kieran. He looked as thoroughly bewildered as she felt._

They exchanged a look that said both, "What's going on?" and, "I have no idea," at the same time.

"Penny, Kieran," a soft, familiar voice said.

They turned to find their grandmother standing before them, her hair nearly white, the necklace till around her neck. She still spoke with the accent that they recognised now as the trace of Westron that always remained in her speech.

"Are you real?" Kieran asked.

"No, love, I'm just a dream. I'm a dream sent by the Valar to explain this to you. I know you don't understand, but sixty years ago, when your grandfather and I were taken to your world it upset a balance between our worlds. Nothing too major has happened yet, nothing drastic, but our worlds need to be separate again. They need to be balanced for that to happen, and the only way for them to be balanced is for two people to return to Middle Earth. I wish it could be me and Albion, but we are too old now to survive such a trip. It's a strain, you see, to travel between two worlds. You did not feel it the first time, but you would if you came back, and you can't. Even if it weren't physically difficult, enough rules have been bent as it is, and you need to stay there, for the good of both our worlds. I don't know if Tolkien created Middle Earth, or if our crossing allowed the knowledge of this place to seep into his mind without his knowing. All I do know is that I love you. I knew when you disappeared what had happened. You've done well here. Remember the necklace. My family will know it." She sighed. "I wish I could do this for you, but I know you'll be fine. I am sorry this could not have happened earlier, but even the Valar can only induce such dreams close to the spot of the original crossing. I have to go."

Slowly Penny opened her eyes to be greeted by the sight of Kieran doing the same in the next bed. He looked as confused as she felt.

"I had the strangest dream," Penny said in English.

"Me too," Kieran told her. "About Gramma, and. . . I guess it was real. As real as dreams get, anyway."

"I guess," Penny said. "So, this means. . ." She blinked back unexpected tears and tried again. "This means we can't go home."

"I guess. I wish we could."

"Me too," Penny said automatically, but realised that though in a way she wished she could go home, in others she didn't. The news that they couldn't go home brought a strange sense of relief as well as loss. There would be no explanations about where they had been or how they returned. There would be no school to catch up on, no university to apply to. At the same time, whether she wanted to admit it or not, like her brother she had clung to the hope of seeing her mother and younger siblings again. "It's strange, though. I'd miss this place if I had to leave it."

"You got here yesterday," Kieran said.

"Middle Earth, Kieran. Not Clearwater. It better go well today."

"You nervous?"

"Oh, yeah." 

"What time is it?"

Penny glanced past her brother to the window and took in the deep blue sky and the first signs of dawn behind the buildings. "Tindome." She stood and went to sit on her brother's bed. "Our window faces east."

"I want to sleep, Penny. Even Glorfindel's still asleep."

The elf did appear to be sleeping, though with him it was hard to tell. His eyes were open, but seemed to be staring through the ceiling, rather than at it.

"Not for long," Penny said softly. "We won't get much more sleep, anyhow. May as well watch the sun rise."

Kieran groaned, but sat up. "God, I wish we could go home," he whispered, not to Penny, perhaps to no one.

"I don't think Iluvatar cares what you want," Penny murmured. "I think he just cares what his world needs."

"Yeah, well, who are the Valar to say where we should live. What gives them the right to bring us here?"

"The Valar are somewhere between archangels and lesser deities who's job it is to watch over Arda. That's who they think they are, and probably what gives them the right."

"Why us?"

Penny shrugged. "Probably because we're half Dunedain, or whatever these people are, by blood, and because there are two of us. Two left. Two must return, preferably of the same blood, I'd imagine, but in the end it's like a scale. Our worlds hang in balance and when two are taken from one side, two must be taken from the other side to replace them. It's numbers, Kieran. Cold, unsympathetic numbers. I've never understood why you love them so much."

"Because they don't lie, they don't change. They're black and white. In math you're always right or wrong. You know where you stand."

"Nothing's black and white. Not even math."

Glorfindel woke, surprised to see both twins awake the first chance they'd had to sleep in in months. They briefly explained about the dream, and what it had told them. Glorfindel simply listened and nodded. Both twins seemed to wilt as they spoke. Even Penny's more guarded hope had been crushed by the news.

"Get ready," the elf said eventually.

They did. The dream only made the visit to Ailyn's sister more urgent. Kieran dug out a shirt and pants that didn't look like they'd been lived in for three months from the bottom of his bag. Penny put the dress she'd packed on, and braided her hair elven style. It took ages, but looked nice and was more out of the way than simply leaving it loose. Glorfindel asked the inn keeper for the address of Ailyn's sister. She lived on a farm a short ride out of town.

Riding through town, there were few young men, or even middle aged men. Women and children could be found in abundance, but the men were absent.

"Where are all the men?" Kieran asked.

"With the Rangers," Glorfindel answered shortly.

"Oh."

It was sunny, but little warmth was cast with the morning light. A chill wind blew through the streets as they rode. Outside the town lay several farms, but they found the one they wanted quickly. It was the closest to Clearwater. The house was a small, two story wooden building near the barn. A large garden lay ready for planting when the spring came, and large fields could be seen behind. In the distance sheep and cows grazed on other farms.

A woman in her thirties stepped outside at the sound of the hoof beats. "Who are you? Can I help you?" she asked in Common.

"We are Glorfindel, Aislinn and Kieran of Imladris," Glorfindel said. "Does Ailiel live here?"

"Yes. I am her daughter Caelyn."

"We must speak with her."

Caelyn said something that went completely over the twins' heads before nodding. "Come in."

"She says Alden warned her we might come." Glorfindel said softly in Sindarin before either of them could ask.

All three of them quickly dismounted and tied their horses to hitching posts by the barn. Caelyn waited for them before leading them inside. Her hair was long and loose, dark brown. She didn't seem unfriendly, but very cautious. 

Inside, she led them to the kitchen and sat them at the table. "Tea?" She didn't wait for the answer, but put the kettle on. The whole place smelled of dried herbs--mint and lavender.

Using Glorfindel as a translator, Caelyn said, "Mother wants to see you. You'd better not hurt her. I don't have much time today, but I'll stay as long as I can. Wait here."

She left and returned a few minutes later with a woman in her late sixties. Ailiel had silver hair and grey eyes. Her dress, like her daughter's, was beige and homemade. Penny glanced down nervously at her green dress. The Rivendell cloth seemed modest among the elves, but out of place in this setting. Kieran fiddled with the folded paper he'd brought.

"Good morning," Ailiel said in Sindarin. "Yes, I speak Elvish. My parents taught me as a girl. There are a few people in these parts who still speak the language of the Eldar. Why are you here?"

"I believe these young people to be the grandchildren of your sister Ailyn," Glorfindel said in Sindarin as a point of courtesy to the twins.

"So Alden told me," Ailiel said and sat. "As you've probably gathered I'm Ailyn's sister--Ailiel. How can you two be her grandchildren? She and her husband vanished sixty years ago."

"She went to our land," Penny said. "Far away."

"Can you prove this?"

Kieran took his paper and unfolded it to show the picture of the necklace. "She always wore this. She probably still does. We haven't seen her in over four years."

Ailiel studied the picture carefully, and the runes on the bottom of the page, tears filling her eyes. "This is the necklace, and this is what her wedding ring said. How. . .?"

"From what we can tell," Glorfindel said, "Sarumon made a mistake. He sent your sister and her husband to another world. Now the Valar have brought Aislinn and Kieran to restore the balance between our worlds."

"This is hard to take in."

"I know," Penny said. "Believe me, I know."

"I believe you," Ailiel said slowly. "By the Valar, the necklace. What do you want from us? Why have you come here?" Ailiel's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

Neither twin spoke. 'Because Elrond made us,' did not seem like a wise thing to say, however true.

Glorfindel came to their rescue by saying softly, "Lord Elrond sent them to learn why they were brought to Middle Earth, and to answer questions which have weighed heavily on your mind for many years now. They may stay here, if you wish, or return with me to Rivendell in two weeks if you prefer."

"Can you come back tomorrow when I have had time to think?"

"Of course," Glorfindel said. He rose, and the twins followed.

For the rest of the day, the twins and Glorfindel explored the woods surrounding Clearwater on horseback, and the town itself. It wasn't a large town, and by the end of the day they knew the location of most of the shops, and had spoken with some of the people who lived there. They didn't talk much. There was nothing to say. Penny wasn't sure what she was more afraid of--her great-aunt accepting her and Kieran or her rejection. Acceptance would mean staying here, and that meant adapting to a whole new group of people and the language. Rejection would mean they had an excuse to return to Rivendell, where they knew the people and the language, though many of the people would be leaving fairly soon.

The next afternoon they returned to Ailiel's for the verdict. Again, her daughter Caelyn was there. This time she stayed in the kitchen for tea, and to listen. Ailiel and Caelyn spent several minutes setting out mint tea, and a type of fruit cake out before sitting down themselves.

"My daughter is a midwife, like me," Ailiel said. "My husband is out hunting, but the three of us talked last night."

Penny and Kieran shifted in their seats. They exchanged a brief glance, hoping for good news, but not expecting it. The town was nice enough, but most of the people didn't seem overly welcoming of strangers. Not that they could blame anyone for that these days.

"What have you decided?" Glorfindel asked.

"They are our family," Ailiel said. "You have proven that beyond doubt. How can we turn them away? Aislinn, Kieran, you may stay here, with us, if you wish. I can help you learn Common. Both of you can train for jobs in town, or work on the farm as you wish. If you wish to return to your home with the elves, though, we will not stop you."

Penny faced Kieran. "We should stay. Most of the elves we know will be leaving in the next two years," she said in English.

Kieran nodded. "Not much point in going back then. Besides, they're family. It'll be nice to live with humans again."

Both twins faced Ailiel. "We'll stay," they said in Common as one.

Ailiel smiled. "I hoped you might say that."

__

When the seas and mountains fall

And we come to end of days

In the dark I hear a call

Calling me there

I will go there

And back again.


	7. Epilogue

**Well, this is the last chapter. Sorry it's short, but epilogues aren't really supposed to be long. I'm also very sorry it took so long, but I've had a busy summer. I had to take a math course for three weeks, and I'm also preparing for university(I got in!) so it's been hectic. I've already started the companion piece, _Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges. _So, read, review, enjoy.**

The Irish Blessing at the end is not mine. I don't know who wrote it, but I've heard it sung a number of times and learned the words. All previous disclaimers and language notes stand.

Penny and Kieran bided the time before their great-uncle came home by moving their possessions to Ailiel's house and telling the old woman about her sister and brother-in-law. Ailiel listened patiently while the twins set their possessions in the two spare rooms of the house. One was a guest room. The other had been Caelyn's before she married and moved out. Though she'd been staying with her parents while her husband was with the rangers, she had agreed to stay in her own house now that the twins would be with her parents. Glorfindel would stay in the inn, simply because the house was full already.

When they finished what needed to be done they set about doing trivial tasks. It was a long day. The minutes seemed to pass like hours. 

"I hope Uncle Caethal likes us," Penny murmured in English as they sat at the kitchen table twiddling their thumbs. At least, that's what she was doing. Kieran was drawing what could only be described as doodles on his sketch pad. He'd need a new pencil soon. "Or at least tolerates us."

"He will. I mean, he did agree to this last night, right?"

"True. I guess I'm just nervous."

"Why don't you clean your flute?" Kieran asked.

"Because if I clean it one more time today there won't be a flute left to clean."

Later in the afternoon Penny helped Ailiel prepare bread and stew for supper and Kieran went with Glorfindel to bring in water for the night and the next morning, as well as to care for the horses.

Finally, when supper was almost ready a silver haired man entered the house. Penny and Kieran tried to melt into the background, but his eyes immediately lit on them anyhow.

"You must be Aislinn and Kieran," he said. "I'm Caethal, your great-uncle. Since you're here can I assume you've decided to stay?"

Though he spoke in Common, Ailiel translated. The twins nodded.

"Well, you'll be expected to help out with chores, and pull your weight, but we're glad to have you."

Penny and Kieran gave small, uncertain, but grateful smiles. "We're glad you want us," Kieran said.

The next day Caethal showed them how to perform most of the farm chores, such as feeding the animals and cleaning their stalls. Then he took them on a tour of the farm. There was a large flock of sheep with a group of dogs to look after it, though they stayed either in the field or in the barn. There were four of them, and they reminded Penny vaguely of the collies back home, though the colouring was more that of a German Shepherd. The sheep field was behind a hill, so the twins hadn't seen it when they first came to the barn. One of the dogs was a female named Swift. The three males were called Faithful, Courage, and Guardian. 

Caethal called the dogs to him and bent down to place a mixture of meat, biscuits, and a few vegetables on the ground. All four dogs came flying to eat their breakfast.

"Sit. Stay," Caethal ordered. The dogs obeyed. 

Caethal quickly introduced the twins. Penny and Kieran offered their hands, and all four dogs sniffed them and seemed to confer silently before licking their hands in acceptance.

"Good. They like you," Caethal said. "Sheep are my main business." As an afterthought to his Westron words he asked, "You understand?"

The twins nodded.

"Good. Keep moving."

The farm was somewhat larger than the twins had expected. In addition to the sheep there was a large, though dormant vegetable garden, herb garden, and a corn field. Those were the barren fields they had seen when they first came.

After dinner, Penny helped Ailiel with spinning and weaving, grateful not for the first time that Lauriel had taught her thread craft over the years. Kieran followed Caethal out to help with the animals and making repairs to parts of the barn that had been damaged in winter storms.

The days faded into a routine of getting up at dawn to care for the animals, then eating breakfast. After the meal, Penny would help Ailiel and Caelyn with their jobs, even following them to make house calls on occasion, and Kieran helped Caethal.

While Penny helped Ailiel and Caelyn, they discussed the possibility of her apprenticing both of them. Penny had never been a terribly strong science student, preferring language, social science, and history, but she knew a fair bit about herb lore by now, and liked helping people. Being a midwife would also give her a sense of purpose, and it did seem to run in the family, so she agreed.

Half way into their second week in Clearwater Caethal and Glorfindel took Kieran into town to speak to the carpenter. He was a middle aged man, known by his trade rather than name, but had not gone with the Rangers. Kieran looked around his workshop in awe. He knew a little bit about shaping wood--carving and whittling--but couldn't imagine being able to form things this wonderful. Oh sure, there were the usual tables and chairs, but also figures of birds and animals, and musical instruments. A number of flutes sat on shelves, and there were two full sized harps.

"If it's made of wood, I make it," the carpenter said. For a moment, Kieran was surprised he could understand the words. The full immersion in the Westron language had improved his skills in it more quickly than he'd thought possible.

"They are beautiful," Kieran said carefully.

His uncle and the elf spoke with Mr. Carpenter for a long time. Kieran caught bits of what they were saying, but not enough to follow the conversation, save that it was about him.

A short, nervous eternity later, they turned to Kieran.

Glorfindel was the one to speak. His words were Sindarin so Kieran would understand. "We have decided that, should you choose, Mr. Carpenter will take you on as his apprentice as soon as you learn enough Common that you can understand each other without difficulty. Until then you may visit and watch how he works the wood when Caethal can spare you on the farm, and you may help clean the shop. You would be given a small salary, and eventually be a carpenter in your own right."

"Carving pictures too, decorating things?" Kieran asked.

Glorfindel nodded. "Yes. You will learn the art of carpentry."

"I accept," Kieran said in Common.

A few days later Glorfindel had to leave. The twins were sorry to see him go. They'd known him almost since arriving in Rivendell, and he'd been a constant in their lives ever since. They begged him to stay longer, though they both knew he couldn't. Ailiel kept Penny busy for a day before the departure preparing food for Glorfindel's journey. She wanted enough to feed him for the first week and then some.

Kieran wished he had something more useful than guarding sheep to do, so he found a scrap piece of wood and began carving it while he sat in the field.

As when he led Penny and Kieran, Glorfindel rose at an unholy hour so that he could set out at the first hint of light. By now the twins knew better than to complain about the early rise. Caethal demanded an only slightly more acceptable hour from them on normal days. The Elf ate a cold breakfast, saying that he didn't want to cause Ailiel or Penny any trouble. He called Penny Aislinn though, as everyone did here. She'd meant to tell her aunt and uncle her real first name, but somehow she couldn't seem to find a time to, and it didn't really matter anymore.

As the first ray of sun peaked over the eastern hills, Glorfindel led Asfaloth out of the barn to where a small farewell party had gathered. Even Caelyn had come from her home to say goodbye.

Penny presented Glorfindel with a small loaf of bread she had made herself. Kieran have him a carving of a sheep to remind him of the place he and his twin had settled. He'd spent the better part of a day on it.

"Thank you for bringing our great-niece and nephew to us," Caethal said to Glorfindel and shook his hand.

Ailiel nodded. "Thank you for telling me the fate of my sister and brother in law. It means more to me than I can ever say."

"You're welcome," Glorfindel said.

He turned to the twins. Both were trying to be brave, and both looked somewhat like the lost children he'd met four years ago in Rivendell. "You will be fine," he said in Sindarin. "I have something for each of you." He reached into his bag and pulled out a small box which he handed to Kieran. "Paints, and instructions on how to make more." Penny' s gift was a small, leather bound book. "Elvish songs, including the melody."

The twins smiled at their gifts. 

Kieran opened the box and found small jars of bright red, yellow, blue, orange, green, black, and white, as well as paper with instructions written in Sindarin. "Thank you. They're beautiful."

Penny flipped though the book. Even without her flute handy she could hear some of the melodies in her head by sight reading. "Thank you. Um, our father used to say a blessing. It's Irish, though I guess he wasn't, really. I can say it in Sindarin, if you like. I translated it a long time ago."

Glorfindel nodded. "Say it in your language, though, first."

Penny nodded and started the poem. Kieran joined her after the first line. 

__

"May the road rise up to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields.

Until we meet again, my friend,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand

And the memories we have shared

Linger on and on."

Penny quickly said the translation, and Kieran let her say it alone because, while he could translate the poem off the top of his head if need be, his would be slightly different than hers. Translations were funny that way.

Glorfindel nodded. "Thank you. Perhaps we will meet again. Until then, I wish you the same."

Penny stepped forward to give Glorfindel a hug, and Kieran followed suit.

Then Glorfindel mounted Asfaloth and rode away.

Ailiel stepped forward to put a hand on her niece and nephew's shoulders. "Come in the house. It's time for breakfast and there's work to be done."

The twins nodded and followed her into their new home.

****

Hopefully that wraps up a few loose ends. Please review.


End file.
